


Harry Potter and the Riddle Legacy

by NevilleTheSnakeslayer



Series: The Continuing Adventures of Harry Potter and Teddy Lupin [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Death Eaters, Epic, Epilogue Canon Compliant, F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, Hogwarts, MACUSA | Magical Congress of the United States of America, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Mostly Interview/Pottermore/etc. Compliant, Mystery Character(s), Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Statute of Secrecy (Harry Potter), Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, cast of thousands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 30,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26932315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NevilleTheSnakeslayer/pseuds/NevilleTheSnakeslayer
Summary: It has been eleven years since the Dark Lord has been defeated, but as Harry Potter prepares to send off his godson to his first year at Hogwarts he comes to realize that threats both new and old threaten to upend the peace that he has sacrificed so much to obtain.
Relationships: Arthur Weasley/Molly Weasley, Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy, Daphne Greengrass/Theodore Nott, Demelza Robbins/Dennis Creevey, Gabrielle Delacour/Mark Evans, Hannah Abbott/Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Lavender Brown/Seamus Finnigan
Series: The Continuing Adventures of Harry Potter and Teddy Lupin [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965172
Comments: 7
Kudos: 7





	1. The House at the Crossroads

**Author's Note:**

> This story is canon compliant with everything written in the original books, including the epilogue. It is not designed to be Cursed Child Compliant, although there may be the occasional nod (a brief one shows up in chapter three if you are looking). There will be the occasional departure from canon when it comes to material revealed in Pottermore/Twitter/Interviews/etc. These will be fairly small and minimal, in the grand scheme of things, and will not be done without reason. I have also chosen to pay homage to some of the other fanfiction writers out there whose works I have found to be particularly well done (pay close attention in chapter three again). Some of these shoutouts will be more obvious than others. The general structure of the story will be alternating between Harry's work as an Auror and what is going on with Teddy Lupin at Hogwarts as both characters will be sharing the role of primary protagonist.

The residents of Thornbreak Hollow avoided the large house at the crossroads outside of the town. The muggle residents of the town believed the house to be completely unoccupied and therefore dangerous due to rotting floorboards and the like. The rumors of lights in the windows at night and the sounds of voices when there should be none, quickly gave rise to the rumors that the house was haunted. The horrifying tales told by a few of the local youths who had approached the house on a dare in years past only cemented the legend. The wizard residents of Thornbreak Hollow avoided the large house because they happened to know very well that the house was not unoccupied at all and what lay within its walls was far more dangerous than any structural unsoundness or even the nastiest of poltergeists.

All of the locals, wizard and muggle alike, referred to the house as the The Old Nott House, although the only reason the muggles called it that was because of the ivy covered sign at the front drive proclaiming the building to be Nott Manor. The wizard community knew more details of the family (or what was left of them) that still owned the house, but even they only spoke the name “Nott” in hushed whispers told to their children by firelight of masked killers and sinister signs fired into the sky.

No one was ever seen coming or going from the house and the property was considerably far from any other buildings so anyone travelling down Mill Hall Road at the last flickers of twilight on that warm summer evening would have been a bit startled to see a figure dressed in a long black cloak approaching the manor house. They would have been even more startled if they had been travelling down the road a few minutes earlier and witnessed the mysterious figure appear out of thin air with a distinct pop. Of course, if anyone had been on the road to witness this, they would have found themselves completely unable to recall the incident or speak of it. Such were the strength of the man’s memory charms.

The man strode up to the gates of the manor and stopped in front of two stone gargoyles. They both turned and looked at the pale haired man standing in front of them and spoke in unison with raspy voices that seemed to echo through the night.

“Speak.”

There was a long moment of silence that followed where even the normal creatures of the night that roamed the nearby forests and fields seemed to be holding their breath. The two gargoyles crouched down and prepared to spring and the visitor finally spoke.

“I, Draco Malfoy, seek entrance to the house of Nott by right of the ties that bind me to this family by blood and marriage. I swear by my magic that I mean no harm to those that dwell within.”

The gargoyles paused, but did not relax. Draco lifted his sleeve and showed a faded tattoo to the first gargoyle. The stone sentinel growled and resumed its accustomed lifeless position. To the other gargoyle Draco then spoke.

“Tom Riddle was a psychopathic half-blood who nearly destroyed wizardkind and I am glad he is dead.”

The remaining gargoyle continued to growl and Draco yelled towards the house.

“Theo! Call off your pet! I bring neither Death Eaters nor Aurors with me.”

A tall man with sleek black hair left the shadows of the house where he had been standing and waved his wand toward the gate. The gargoyle sat back on its haunches and was still, but the gate remained closed.

“Draco, what creature did Moody, the auror, turn you into our fourth year?”

“ It was a ferret. But it wasn’t Moody, as you well know, it was the madman Crouch in disguise. Now that I have proven my identity will you give me your hospitality or will we spend the rest of the evening sneering at each other through these bars while your wife and child watch from the windows?”

Theo glanced back towards the house and one of the curtains in an upstairs window moved slightly. With a sigh Theodore Nott waved his wand once again and the gate opened. Draco strode up the drive and through the house’s front doors as if he owned it with Theo following behind soft and silent as a shadow. The two men entered the library where a hearty fire in the hearth filled the room with a warmth that belied the house’s grim exterior.

Theo raised his hands and clapped twice and a pair of house elves appeared out of thin air as was their wont.

“What can Krithkin and Malkeg do for you and Master Malfoy, Master Nott?”

Theo paused to consider it for a minute before coming to a decision.

“I think the 72’ Ogden is called for, unless of course my brother-in-law disagrees?”

Draco waved his hand to signal his ambivalence and proceeded to slap a copy of the newspaper down on a nearby desk as the two elves disapparated.

“I can’t believe they still let you keep those things, Theo. Mother tried to enlist some of them to help care for the manor a year or so back and she was refused at every turn. My mother! Refused! By house elves! Bloody hell, she was even offering to pay the creatures.”

Theo laughed.

“Yes, well my family had enough sense to actually think of our elves as an investment to be handled responsibly. They tend not to show a great deal of loyalty when you throw knives at them.”

“That was one time and Bellatrix…”

“ I know, I know. She was a psychopath. They all were. Our fathers worst of all. Speaking of which, I understand Lucius is completing his sentence soon?”

“Christmas,” Draco muttered, staring into the fire. “Believe me, that will be a barrel of laughs once father returns to the manor to hold court. All of the rats will come crawling out of the woodwork again.”

“Ah, I take it that this is the reason for your visit? Have our old housemates come prowling around again looking for scraps and whispered promises of vengeance?”

Draco snorted. “Goyle has been lurking across the street from Malfoy Manor every night for the last week. He thinks he is being subtle, but he is...you know...Goyle. He is only slightly less noticeable than an erumpet in an apothecary.”

Theo gestured towards the paper sitting on the desk where the headline “POTTER ACCEPTS POSITION AS HEAD AUROR” blared from the page. “Could you not speak to your old friend about it? I understand his people would love to know what Goyle, the Lestrange brothers, and whoever else is left are up to.”

Draco threw his hands in the air in frustration. “What, and have the aurors crawling up my family’s arses again? No thank you. The last time Mundungus Fletcher tried to get out of time in Azkaban by claiming Astoria and I were trafficking in dark artifacts that bloody fool Finnigan had a dozen aurors storm the Manor at four in the morning. Scorpius had nightmares for a fortnight. Yesterday I made the unpleasant discovery that my only son’s boggart is a man in an auror uniform. Can you imagine what Rita Skeeter would say if she ever found out about that? Potter and his cronies stay out of this unless there is absolutely no other way. You should read that paper by the way. It says a lot about the times we are in right now that our old friends of the Skull and Snake may end up being the least of our worries. All of this stuff with the Statute of Secrecy, the International Confederation of Wizards sending a delegation, this war between Greyback and the Helsing society, the squib riots, and God only knows what else. Dark times are coming again, Theo. We need to be ready.”

At this point both men fell silent as the elves returned with the firewhiskey and glasses. Theo sipped at his drink in a meditative manner and it was a long time before anyone spoke.

“You know,” Theo finally said. “The time may be coming when there is no other way. Callum heads off to Hogwarts in the fall, and there are...certain risks...that are inherent to that. We have been walking this line for far too long Draco; neither truly a Death Eater nor truly one of those who seeks to stop them. All it will take is one mistake, one tiny mistake, and it will all come crashing down.”

“I know,” said Draco. “ You know, you could just tell the boy. We all remember all of the secrets that Dumbledore kept and how those ended up.”

“Dumbledore was right in the end.”

“Dumbledore died in the end. Hell, if what my mother says is true, even POTTER died in the end for at least a little while before being saved by some love magic hocus pocus. We are not Dumbledore. Callum is not Harry Potter. I would not see my nephew suffer for his parents’ indiscretions.”

“Not yet. It isn’t time. Right now most people he meets at school will hate him because he has the last name of Nott. If he were to let anything slip, most people would not hate him. Everyone would hate him.”

There was another long silence before Draco drained the last of his Firewhiskey and turned to leave.

“Well,” he said. “For all our sakes let’s pray that the Hat puts him in Slytherin. If it doesn’t...then we both know it is only a matter of time before all Hell breaks loose..”

Theo scoffed. “I hardly think that is anything we have to worry about. Everyone know that the heirs of House Nott have worn the green for centuries.”

“Yes,” said Draco over his shoulder as he left the house. “Everyone knows this. That is the problem. Goodnight Theo.”

Draco walked to the road and vanished with a pop, but the lights in Nott Manor burned long after he had left.


	2. A Breach in the Statute

It was the first day off that Harry Potter had had in over two months, so he was not in a particularly good mood when he heard the tell-tale sign of a floo call at five in the morning followed by Seamus Finnigan’s voice echoing through the dark halls of Grimmauld Place.

“Oi! Potter! Get your arse down here! Kingsley called a meeting and…”

The rest of Seamus’ message was drowned out by the screams of both Mrs. Black’s portrait and the cries of the freshly woken Lily Potter who, at the age of only one year, was still not accustomed to loud noises in what was still, to all appearances, the middle of the night. Her older brothers ignored the cacophony. At the ripe old ages of three and four they had long ago developed the ability to sleep through this particular set of sounds.

Harry rolled over on his bed to face Ginny with a groan.

“ I am going to murder him.”

Ginny pulled the blanket over her head and muttered darkly as she tried to go back to sleep.

“Don’t bother. It will be too much paperwork..”

Harry pulled on his robes and glasses and went downstairs, silencing Mrs. Black’s screams as he went. He entered the living room to find Seamus’ head floating in the fireplace and in the process of being scolded by an irate Kreacher who was hovering near the fire cradling his favorite frying pan in a menacing fashion.

“Disturbing Mistress Black and waking Miss Lily from her sleep, the nasty man has. Oh, he will be sorry when my master finds out, but my master is too merciful. Kreacher should punish the nasty man himself, yes he should. Waking the house of my master before dawn. Oh the shame of it.”

“Kreacher,” Harry interrupted with a sigh. “Leave Master Finnigan alone. I am sure he has a good reason for his rudeness. Perhaps Miss Lily would like her bottle refreshed?”

Kreacher muttered darkly and slunk into the kitchen. Seamus let out a breath.

“Whew! Has anyone ever told you how freaky that elf of yours is, Harry? I guess Mundungus Fletcher really wasn’t joking when he talked about the murder elf you sicced on him that one time.”

“He’s been loads better these last few years Seamus. Hasn’t threatened to kill the company once.”

“Except for just now.”

“He probably thought you were an intruder. For God’s sake Seamus the sun isn’t even up yet!”

Seamus grew serious.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I just got the news. Dawlish scheduled a debrief with Kingsley for six this morning. Apparently Kingsley just got back from whatever conference he was going to on the continent late last night, and asked to be told anything that happened in his absence as soon as possible.”

“This could have waited for Monday. Hell, Kingsley probably expected it to be scheduled for Monday. Besides, why is Dawlish scheduling meetings with the Minister anyhow? That’s my job as department head.”

Seamus coughed discreetly.

“He may have mentioned something about not wanting to disturb you on your day off.”

“Was that all he said?”

“Not exactly. He may have said something about how the Chosen One may have taken the weekend off, but the Dark Wizards have not. Something about how if the ‘Great Harry Potter’ has too much on his plate to tell the minister about security threats then he might as well do it himself.”

Harry rubbed the last of the sleep from his eyes in frustration.

“Great. Remind me why I haven’t fired that man yet?”

“Because the union would pitch a fit.”

“Right, that was it. I’ll be right there. See you in a few?”

The floating Seamus head seemed to awkwardly look over its shoulder.

“Yeah, about that. I just got back from chasing down a lead on Greyback about twenty minutes ago, and Lavender is back in town. You know how she has been on tour for that play she is in for the last two months? Well, the kids are with the folks for the night and…”

At this point a distinctly feminine voice echoed through the fireplace.

“Shay-Shay, come back to bed.”

Harry grinned as Seamus cringed. From the darkness of the kitchen Kreacher let out a sinister sounding chuckle.

“Shay-Shay?”

“Oh Godric, I can’t persuade you to forget you heard that can I?”

“Not a chance Shay-Shay. Go tend to your husbandly duties.”

“Sod off Potter.”

“Don’t make me send my murderous house elf after you.”

For a brief moment Seamus’ hand became visible in the flickering flames and made a rude gesture before it vanished as the floo call ended.

Harry turned to find Kreacher presenting a warm bottle of milk to Ginny who stood in the doorway cradling Lily who was well on her way to falling back to sleep.

“So on a scale from an illegal booby trap on a shop in Knockturn Alley to another Azkaban breakout, how bad is it?”

“Dawlish is sulking.”

“Ah, so it is closer to the Azkaban end of the scale.”

“You have no idea. I need to go over there and make sure Dawlish doesn’t misrepresent anything. With my luck he will try to brush the actual security issues aside just because I am prioritizing them and then act like some kid performing underage magic while on holiday is the equivalent of Fenrir Greyback turning the muggle parliament into werewolves.”

“Greyback hasn’t actually…”

“Not as far as we know.”

Ginny smiled. “Go save the wizarding world from the incompetent buereaucrats dear. Just try to be back for lunch. Tomorrow is the first, and you promised Teddy you would take him to Diagon Alley this afternoon.”

“He already has his wand and school supplies taken care of right? The train leaves tomorrow and…”

“Don’t worry. Andromeda took care of that last week. You get to be the fun godfather today. Oh, and my dear brothers have convinced the boy that he is going to be in Slytherin and Andromeda is being...less than reassuring about the issue so you might want to see what is going on there.”

“Right. She was in Slytherin herself.”

“Which is not what Teddy wants to hear right now. I am afraid the example of us Weasleys has convinced him that the Sorting Hat sticks families in the same house, and all of Teddy’s living blood relatives have a distinct preference for Green and Silver.”

Harry kissed his wife on the cheek as he tossed some floo powder into the fireplace.

“I’ll have a word with him. See you in a bit. Love you lots. Ministry of Magic!”

Harry stepped into the green fire and disappeared into the swirls of color that was the floo network. Seconds later he popped out into the atrium on the Ministry and set off for the security checkpoint. He handed his wand to the half-asleep security guard and walked through a fine mist that was hovering under the security archway. The mist glowed green and made a cheerful chiming sound.

The security guard handed back Harry his wand. “All set Mr. Potter. The Trickster Mist has cleared you. Have a good day.”

“You to Patterson.” Harry replied as he glanced at his watch and groaned. He began to move toward the lifts at a light jog and soon enough was entering the Minister’s offices. He could hear Dawlish talking from halfway down the hallway.

“...as you can see the child’s actions are a clear breach of the Statute and is something that should be handled immediately. I would be more than happy to set up a task force to take care of…”

Harry entered Kingsley’s office with a carefully cultivated cheerful disposition that he knew perfectly well would infuriate Dawlish.

“Kingsley! Welcome back! I trust the conference went well? Dawlish, I couldn’t help but overhear you talking about a child breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Surely this is not the Auror Department’s concern? That would be the Improper Use of Magic Office or, quite possibly, a Hogwarts disciplinary matter.”

“Potter, the Statute is the cornerstone of wizarding society and…”

“What did the child do?”

“He threw a tantrum and stuck his grandparents to the ceiling.”

“ A tantrum, eh? How old was the child?”

Dawlish muttered something softly under his breath.

“What was that? I didn’t quite catch it.”

“Three. The boy is three.” “Ah, so it was accidental magic. Surely you just need to send an owl to Justin over in Muggle Relations and…”

“I am not involving another one of your little henchmen in this matter Potter!”

“No. Just the auror department.”

At this point Kingsley interrupted what was promising to be an excellent row.

“Gentlemen, please. I have only had four hours of sleep and would like to get through this meeting without having to take a stress relief potion. Auror Dawlish, it is Auror Potter’s prerogative as department head to determine what matters to involve the aurors in. Auror Potter, please stop antagonizing Auror Dawlish. Now, I believe that the purpose of this meeting was to discuss security threats?”

Dawlish looked like he wanted to speak, but Harry cleared his threat and jumped in.

“Right. Things haven’t changed much since you left last week. I am debriefing one of my aurors on Monday about some leads they have in regards to Greyback.”

Kingsley nodded. “Any further word about the Azkaban escapees?”

“Nothing after what we discussed the last time we met. My informant says that a few of the old Death Eaters seem to be moving around a bit. They may be up to something, but whatever it is it seems to be in the early stages.”

Dawlish snorted. “Your informant. Bah! Why haven’t I spoken to this informant?”

Harry took a deep breath and counted to five.

“Anyone in a position to know about the activities of former Death Eaters would be mailed to the Ministry in pieces if they were seen to be talking to the aurors.”

Kingsley held up his hand. “Completely understandable. Anything else I should be aware of?”

“Nothing major. We might be close to being able to nail Ulysses Pike on a Dark Artifact Trafficking charge though, and a few of the folks over with The New Dawn were caught vandalizing a few shops in Hogsmeade. Oh, and the International Confederation of Wizards wants to have their own independent security during the Assembly next month.”

“I am not sure how wise an idea that is.”

“I tend to agree with you. The problem is if anything goes wrong, it will be our heads on the chopping block. You know they have been desperate to find some excuse to audit us since we sponsored that Rights of Intelligent Beings resolution last year. Not to mention the fact that the Americans seem to think...”

“...that the Muggleborn Family Integration Program will destroy the Statute of Secrecy.” finished Kinglsey. “ I am aware of MACUSA’s concerns, but I believe that those may be outside of the Auror Office’s purview.”

“Sorry about that, sir.”

“Oh, it is not a problem. Leave the politics to me while you still can. If the auror office actually has to get involved with the ICW’s nonsense…” Kingsley shuddered. “...well, it would mean that the Assembly went very poorly indeed. Anything else before I head out gentlemen?”

Dawlish finally managed to sneak a word in.

“Minister, if I may, I have just completed a security assessment at Hogwarts and have found that the risk of a...law enforcement related incident...has risen dramatically. I would recommend a ministry task force to be stationed at Hogwarts for the foreseeable…”

“No,” Harry interrupted firmly. “We are not doing that again. The Dementors. Umbridge. The Carrows. I am not sitting by and letting that happen under my watch. What do you mean the risk of an incident has gone up?”

Dawlish smirked. “The children of several Death Eaters are going to be under the same roof as the godson of Harry Potter. I think we all know that is a...potentially explosive situation. Caracas Warrington has been pulled before the Improper Use of Magic Office four times already and he is only a third year, and God only knows what dark secrets Theodore Nott has been teaching young Calum seeing as no one has ever actually seen the boy. He could show up on the train tomorrow with no nose and red eyes for all we know. I certainly hope that Teddy knows a good shield charm when I remember the stories of how quickly you and Draco Malfoy started throwing hexes at each other.”

Harry’s hand twitched toward his wand, but Kingsley intervened.

“John. That is enough. Go get a cup of tea.”

“With all do respect Minister…”

“John. Go. Get. A. Cup. Of. Tea.”

Dawlish stormed out of the office muttering in a fashion that would make Kreacher proud.

Harry turned to Kinglsey. “Remind me why we have to keep him around again? He just threatened my godson to make a point, sir.”

“He has seniority and the union…”

“With all do respect, sir, bugger the union.”

Kinglsey tried to hide his brief laugh with an unconvincing cough. “Well, be that as it may. We are stuck with him, unless of course one of your informants has proof that he was NOT in fact under the Imperius Curse during the Thickneese administration?”

“ No. They don’t, and believe me I have checked and double checked.”

“Well, more’s the pity. You should go home and get some rest Harry. Spend some time with your godson. Oh, and speaking of the Americans I really must get you in touch with Matthew Calderon-Boot at some point next week. He is at the Magical Refugee office at the moment and there is some stuff that he has been telling me that...well, it can wait until Monday. I don’t want to see you until nine o’clock Monday morning, you hear? Get some sleep and quality time in.”

“Wait. Why would there be a wizarding refugee from America? Usually…”

“Monday, Potter.”

“Right. Got it. I’ll just swing by my office and check to make sure that no one has tried to send a heliopath through the floo again.”

Kingsley scowled. “You have five minutes. Then I send the security trolls to evict you from the building. You know there was a time not that long ago when no self-respecting wizard believed in heliopaths. Now...well, if things keep going the way they are going it will only be another few weeks before someone figures out how to properly weaponize the damn things. Four minutes, thirty seconds Auror Potter.”

Harry sprang from his seat and set off at a brisk walk down the hall toward the auror office. He passed through another batch of Trickster Mist on his way into the department and as soon as the mist made the chiming sound he poked his head through the door to see who was in the office.

“Ah, Padma. Just who I wanted to see. Is there any…”

Padma Goldstein waved a letter with Ginny’s distinct handwriting at Harry.

“Oh no. Someone has promised a very excited eleven year old a trip to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes this afternoon. I like my bogeys in the form that they are, thank you very much.”

Harry tried to peer past Padma into his office, but she blocked him. A smoking howler flew into the room and detonated with a roar of Kingsley’s voice.

“THREE MINUTES, HARRY.”

Padma was insufferably smug.

“Sorry Harry,” she smirked. “Minister’s orders.”

Harry acknowledged that he was beaten. His shoulders slumped, but he couldn’t help but grin.

“Well, if the minister insists.”

At this point there was a loud chime from the Trickster Mist and a notably pregnant and irate woman with her light brown hair pulled back in a messy ponytail staggered into the auror office. She quickly turned her fury upon Harry.

“Ah, Harry. Just who I wanted to see. What have you done with him?”

Padma threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

“Rowena’s rancid right…”

Harry feigned innocence. “Uh, hi Demelza. What have I done with who?”

“Don’t start that nonsense again. Where have you sent my husband? I haven’t heard from him in two weeks!”

“Technically speaking I haven’t sent him anywhere seeing as…”

Demelza drew her wand.

“Yes, yes. I know. ‘The Auror Office is separate from the Cursebreaker Office’. I have heard that song and dance before. Spare me the plausible deniability crap. WHERE. IS. DENNIS?”

The end of Demelza Creevey’s wand hand now begun to shoot a few nasty looking sparks and Harry suspected that he could hear the distinctive tromping of security trolls in the distance. There were times when discretion gave way to survival. This was one of those times. Harry lowered his voice.

“Listen. I can’t tell you exactly where he is. I’m not supposed to know, remember? I certainly don’t know anything about how he and Jimmy Peakes are due back from the jungle sometime this week after they finish looking into some Aztec Cult thing that I certainly did NOT ask them to take a peek at as a personal favor. I certainly didn’t speak to him by floo just two nights ago and he certainly didn’t say that he missed you and the kids.”

Demelza burst into tears and threw her arms around Harry.

“Oh I am sorry Harry. It’s just been weeks since I last saw his adorable little smile. It's been weeks since he has held his children. It’s been weeks since I have had the opportunity to shag him until we both....”

“Gah! I don’t need to know this!”

Harry ducked down behind a desk as the security trolls poked their heads in the door, grunted, and then moved on.

“Right,” he said turning to Demelza who now had a look of euphoria on her face as she undoubtedly remembered all of the times that...well, some things were better left uncontemplated. “Those trolls will be back in a minute and I need to be elsewhere. Are you okay?”

Demelza nodded and stumbled out of the office in a daze. Harry collapsed into a nearby chair and put his head in his hands.

“Was I that bad when Ginny was still with the Harpies?”

“Nah”, said Padma. “You didn’t have pregnancy hormones. Besides, Demzy will be fine once her Dennyboo gets back. The man may be the size of a rabbit, but he has the libido of one as well from what his wife says.”

“No. No, no, no. Stop talking. I still find myself thinking of Dennis as the little kid who fell off the boat on the way into Hogwarts all those years ago, not…”

“...a fully capable Cursebreaker with two kids and a third on the way?”

“Yeah. That.”

“Well now you know what Arthur and Molly must have felt when you and Ginny started carrying on.”

“Never mind that. I’ve really got to go.”

Harry slipped out into the hallway only to see a security troll at the far end of the corridor spot him and roar. Cursing, Harry sprinted for the lifts and managed to slip inside just ahead of the angry trolls. He had managed to straighten himself up a little by the time the lift reached the atrium, but only a little. Harry headed for the floo, but found a strange group of beings blocking his way.

Standing in front of the floo was a centaur, two hags, half a dozen house elves, and a large floating ball of water which contained a merman. The most cheerful looking member of the group, a house elf naturally, pranced up to him and handed him a leaflet.

“Support sentient rights, master? Did you know it was only five years ago that house elf executions became illegal and that elf abuse is still considered acceptable in some areas? We must resist, good sir! And the centaurs...oh, the centaurs. They have been driven from their ancestral...”

Harry smiled and regretfully interrupted the elf. “Sorry about this, but I really have to run. For the record I have always supported sentient rights. Hermione Granger-Weasley is actually my sister-in-law, believe it or not.”

At the mention of Hermione’s name a chill seemed to spread over several of the creatures. The centaur in particular began to stamp his hoof and the two hags bent their heads together and began to mutter. Even the house elves looked a little uncomfortable. Harry had the distinct feeling that he was out of the loop about something and turned back to the floo fires. As he edged past the suddenly frigid group of creatures, Harry glanced at the pamphlet in his hand. Blazoned across the cover was a logo of a rising sun with the words “The New Dawn” glistening in the light.

************************************************************************************************************

Teddy Lupin sat quietly at his booth in the back corner of The Leaky Cauldron trying not to draw attention to himself. Accordingly his hair, which was usually colored blue or green and styled in some outrageous manner that made all the little old ladies shake their heads in dismay at the new generation, was now its natural sandy blonde. Tomorrow was the big day. Hogwarts. At long last. Less than twenty-four hours were left until he was on the train.

If you had asked Teddy whether he was excited to go to Hogwarts even as recently as a week ago he would have doubtless leapt into the air, turned his hair bright purple, and let out a loud “Hell yeah!” no matter how much his grandmother would have disapproved. As the weeks turned to days and the days turned to hours, however, the little voices that like to whisper fears in the back of young children’s minds began to grow ever louder for Teddy. What if he was in Slytherin? What if he didn’t make any friends? What if everyone at Hogwarts thought that he was a monster?

There had been a time, when Teddy was younger and more innocent, where the idea of being put in Slytherin would not have worried Teddy. After all, his grandmother, who he loved very dearly, had been a Slytherin. She had lulled him to sleep many a night by telling him tales of how she would spend long evenings in the common room watching the merpeople swim past the underwater windows while the entire room glowed green. That idea seemed pretty cool to a young Teddy.

Then he had started to overhear the grown-ups talking when they thought he wasn’t listening or that he didn’t understand what they were hinting at. The way Uncle Ron and Uncle George Weasley would raise their eyebrows ever so slightly and twitch their hands toward their wands when certain people would cross them in the street and how these people always seemed to be wearing green. The way that the entrance to Knockturn Alley, which Teddy was forbidden to pass through, was decorated with several large snakes. The way that Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry grew extremely tense whenever Teddy mentioned that his Great Aunt Narcissa had stopped by for tea with his grandmother. It wasn’t every person who wore green that caused this reaction, but at the same time it was ONLY people who were former Slytherins who got this reaction from the Weasley men. Well, except for Uncle Ron and Viktor Krum, but Aunt Hermione just laughed and said that was because of something completely different. Then Teddy had snuck one of the books on the two Wizarding Wars from the top shelf of his grandmother’s bookcase when she was taking a nap one afternoon, and everything suddenly made sense.

He couldn’t go to Slytherin. He wouldn’t go to Slytherin! He wouldn’t let the hat put him there! He would set the senile old object on fire before he let that happen. “Ah”, thought the little voice. “But isn’t that a very Slytherin thing to do?” Round and round the argument went.

Then there were the other two fears. Teddy was the only surviving member of his grandmother’s family except for Great Aunt Narcissa and Cousin Draco, who Teddy did was more than a little unnerved by. As a result Teddy had, in his opinion, been overprotected and had not had much opportunity as a child to make any real friends outside of the various members of the Weasley family. Even then, the only Weasley who was close enough in age for Teddy to really hang out with was Victoire and even she was two years younger than him. Not to mention the fact that she was a GIRL. Teddy shuddered. He was quite sick of tea parties and he prayed to God that Uncle George had destroyed those old photos of the time that Victoire had talked him into playing dress-up. He had a nasty feeling that those photos were going to show up at an extremely bad time. There had been much hilarity when Teddy was nine and his Weasley family discovered that his boggart was a floating ballerina outfit. There had been less hilarity a year later when Uncle Charlie snuck another boggart into Teddy’s room with a camera at the ready, not knowing Teddy had learned about the Wizarding War, and his boggart had unexpectedly turned into Fenrir Greyback instead. That had been an awkward Christmas morning.

At any rate Teddy was more than a little bit worried that he wouldn’t find any friends at Hogwarts the way all of the rest of his family had. Even his creepy Cousin Draco had met his wife Astoria there. This was an especially worrisome thought for Teddy because he knew very well that the entire wizarding world knew that his father was a werewolf. A war hero, to be sure, but a werewolf nonetheless. There had already been one or two occasions when Teddy had been by himself in Diagon Alley or in Hogsmeade after slipping away from Grandma or Uncle Harry and he had run into older children who had howled at him like wolves from across the street and there had been even more occasions where he could have sworn that he heard men and women spit out the word “monsterblood” at him as he passed by their darkened doorways. There had been times when Teddy almost wished that his parents had died less heroic deaths so that their son was not the subject of the gossip columns. Almost. Not quite, but almost.

At any rate that was why Teddy was sitting in the back corner of The Leaky Cauldron trying not to draw attention to himself and waiting for his godfather. Luckily the landlady, Hannah Longbottom, had long had a bit of a soft spot for him and had kept him well supplied with refills on CracklePop without drawing attention to him. Some of the old fashioned wizards still refused to drink CracklePop in the same way that they refused to use MirrorPhones. They considered them to be Muggle creations that had been bastardized by wizards and were therefore anathema. Teddy thought otherwise and was forever grateful to his Uncle Ron for insisting that it would be a great moneymaker for Weasleys Wizard Wheezes to develop some form of wizarding fizzy drink with way too much sugar in it. Uncle Ron had been introduced to the Muggle equivalent by Aunt Hermione’s grandparents at their engagement party and was fascinated by it. Aunt Hermione had been appalled due to being the daughter of dentists and having been raised to despise most sugary drinks. Unfortunately for wizarding teeth everywhere, CracklePop had caught on to an extent that even startled Uncle George and Uncle Ron and was one of their most profitable products.

Teddy was momentarily distracted from his musings by the arrival of a tall boy with dark red hair who blasted into the tavern with such force that it almost knocked the door off its hinges. He was dragging a slightly harried looking man behind him and spoke with a notable American accident.

“Come on dad!” The boy exclaimed. “The entrance is right through here! That cranky painting on the wall back at the ministry told me so! Whoa, is this a real bar? It looks really old! Rustic! Do you guys serve Burgers and Fries? How about Pepsi?”

Hannah barely had time to say more than “Err”, before the boy had spotted the back exit towards Diagon Alley and with a whoop dragged his father towards it.

“Come on Dad! The shop closes at one o’clock today! We need to get my wand before tomorrow! Oh, and you promised me we could get a pet. There was this old lady at Saint Mungo’s who carried around this magical ferret in her handbag that screamed swear words at me. Do you think they have any of those left?”

The red haired hurricane was gone as soon as it had arrived and the bar was left stunned in its wake. Within a minute or two the muttering had begun again, but Teddy was thankful that, for once, he was not at the center of it.

“Muggleborns.”

“No, just Americans I think. My cousin from the states practically fainted from excitement the first time he saw a castle and he can trace his ancestry all the way back to Merlin himself.”

“Bloody tourists.”

“I don’t know. The boy said that he needed a wand. That sounds an awful lot like…”

“Bah, Hogwarts will let anyone in these days.”

“Hiya Teddy!”

Teddy looked up and allowed a grin to cross his face as he saw his godfather approach the booth. Harry leaned over with a smile and grabbed Teddy’s glass of CracklePop.

“Mind if I steal some of this? Ah! That really hits the spot don’t you think?”

Teddy pretended to give Harry an angry glare.

“You owe me a class of CracklePop.”

“Oh come one now. We both know that Hannah gives you as many refills as you want. At this rate I am going to have to send you over to the Granger’s to have your teeth examined. Without magic.”

Teddy gasped in horror.

“You wouldn’t. Uncle Ron made you and Aunt Hermione swear never to do that after we saw that Muggle movie about the man-eating plant and the evil motorcycle dentist. You know, the one who tied Groundhog Day Man to the chair and made him very excited?”

Harry winced. “That would be the main take away you got from that movie wouldn’t it? I think you guys may have been a little too young for that one.”

“I’m mature.”

“I was mainly referring to your Uncle Ron. But that reminds me that we probably do need to have a conversation at some point about...”

Teddy’s eyes popped with horror.

“No, no, no, no, no. I take it back. I am not mature at all. We are not having this talk right now!”

“Would you prefer it to be from your Grandmother.”

Teddy looked like he might be sick.

“Uncle George got drunk on firewhiskey and already had that talk with me. You don’t need to say anything.”

“Are you sure about that? George may not be the best source of…”

“Uncle Percy got drunk and told me the rest. I will never be able to look Aunt Audrey or Healer Clearwater in the eye again.”

“Well that was doubtless sufficiently traumatizing. All right. You’ve earned yourself another year or two of mercy.”

Teddy nodded desperately.

“Or decades.”

“Anyhow, I believe I promised someone a trip to the good old triple w.”

Teddy cheered and lept out of the booth to race back towards the entrance to Diagon Alley. Harry noted with a smile that Teddy’s hair had briefly shifted to an unmistakable Weasley shade of red before settling back to its normal tones.

Teddy moved so fast through the alley that he might have apparated and within seconds he was bouncing up and down on his feet outside of the joke shop waiting for his godfather to arrive.

“Now remember Teddy,” Harry warned as he approached. “Don’t let Filch catch you with anything from the shop. He still hasn’t forgiven George for turning that corridor into a swamp.”

“Uncle George turned a corridor into a swamp? Cool!”

“Damn.”

“Swear Jar!”

“For the record, that swamp was a measure of last resort and I am sure that you will never have to resort to starting a student insurrection or…”

Harry noticed that Teddy’s ears had perked up at the words “student insurrection” and figured that he should probably quit while he was ahead.

“Never mind. Forget I said any of that.”

“It's all right. I’ll just wait for Uncle George to hit the firewhiskey again and ask him.”

Teddy begged a few galleons off of Harry and vanished into the store among the throngs of other school age children seeking the means to make Argus Filch’s life a living hell.

“You know,” George said as he wandered over to talk to Harry and watch Teddy stare up in awe at a pile of Defecation Delights. “There are times that I wondered how our dear, mild mannered Professor Lupin ever ended up cavorting around with people like your dad and Sirius Black. Then things like this happen and it all becomes much clearer.”

“Well as long as Andromeda doesn’t get any owls about him filling McGonagall’s office with catnip, we should be fine.”

“There was never any proof that Fred and I had any part in that particularly glorious incident.”

“The fact that you were not transfigured into mice and kept in her office as her personal playthings is proof enough of that.”

“You know, there was a time our third year where I wouldn’t have minded that so much.”

“Gah! What is it with everyone and sharing their sex fantasies today?”

“You have a filthy mind, Potter.”

“Between you, Seamus, Demelza, and Percy…”

“Percy?”

“He decided to correct some of the things you told Teddy after you and the Firewhiskey informed him about the wands and the cauldrons.”

“Oh, to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation.”

Harry looked around the shop searching for the other red headed man who ran it.

“George, have you seen Ron around? I wanted to ask him about something.”

“I think he ran off with Charlie to go get some permits about transporting a dragon or something.”

“Huh?”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. You don’t know yet. Charlie is consulting for the zoo portion of Macmillan’s Magical Mayhem. He thinks he has figured out how to keep a Hungarian Horntail in captivity comfortably.”

“Isn’t that thing not opening for another two years? The obliviation department has been screaming to high heaven about that blasted amusement park and I distinctly remember them saying something about it being two years to doomsday. Blaize Zabini has convinced them that this whole thing will single-handedly bring down the Statute of Secrecy. If they find out that the head of the auror department has let his crazy brother-in-laws help Ernie get an effing dragon I will never hear the end of it.”

“This is Charlie we are talking about, Harry. Not Hagrid. If I recall correctly they said something about keeping it in an underground cave.”

“That worked so well for Gringotts”

“That dragon was perfectly contained until YOU happened.”

“It was also miserable.”

“We’re springing for a terraforming spell. It won’t even know it's in a cave.”

“We? What do you mean we?”

“We’re investors, Harry. Hell, it's more of a partnership if I am being honest. I have an EXTREMELY good feeling about all of this. This place is going to be the biggest thing to hit Wizarding Britain since CracklePop or the MirrorPhone and the Weasleys Wizard Wheezes logo is going to be all over it.”

“Ernie promised to let you run the gift shop didn’t he?”

“Oh, yes.”

“I told Justin it was a bad idea to take him to a muggle amusement park for his bachelor party, but nobody even listens to the Chosen One nowadays. Does Hermione know that Ron is involved in this?”

“Who do you think is helping them file the paperwork?”

Harry paused when he remembered Hermione.

“Say, George. That reminds me. Is Hermione doing all right?”

“Never better. Why?”

“Nothing. I hope. Ah, I might as well ask you seeing as Ron isn’t around. Something weird happened when I was at the Ministry this morning.”

Harry proceeded to describe his encounter with some of the members of The New Dawn in the ministry atrium and how they did not seem terribly happy when he mentioned that he knew Hermione. George frowned.

“This must have something to do with Barnaby Thatch’s particular brand of nonsense.” George mused. “But surely they aren’t going to go after Hermione. She’s been campaigning for sentient rights since Hogwarts.”

“Is this going to be the sort of thing that I read about in the papers or is it one of those situations that I will hear about in a floo call from Kingsley in the middle of the night?”

“Honestly, Harry? I’m not sure. Nothing really serious has happened yet. But, it could happen at the drop of a hat.”

Harry groaned and leaned against what seemed to be a wall. Unfortunately it was only a hologram of a wall and Harry promptly fell through the Wheeze Product onto a conveniently present pile of cushions.

“Okay, there is no way there is a market for these things, George!”

George laughed as the tension that had filled the end of their previous conversation dissipated.

“Oh you’d be surprised. The real money-makers are the fake floors of course.”

Teddy was pointedly ignoring his uncles and was trying to decide what objects would be most useful. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, the Portable Hole-in-a-Wall (“charmed not to work on safes or bank vaults so don’t even try it”) was looking particularly appealing. Then again so were the Antigrav Bubbles (“a more relaxing way to fly”). Or the Slime Conjurer 3,000 (“10 gallons of the good green stuff with every usage, guaranteed”). He was not alone in his amazement. The red haired American boy was standing at the end of the aisle uncharacteristically silent with a look of diabolic glee on his face and there was a dark haired girl around Teddy’s age poking at the display of Antigrav Bubbles with a look of awe. For some reason she seemed to be somewhat familiar to Teddy, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out where he had seen her before.

“How do you think they do it?” she asked, turning to Teddy. “It has to be mirrors or something right?”

“I think my Uncle said they did it by mixing the cushioning charm, the bobble head charm, and the levitation charm together. And some other stuff, but he said that was a trade secret.”

“Charms? Huh?” The girl appeared to be strangely puzzled. “That is weird. I know half of the stuff in here has to be CGI somehow and the other half some other type of special effect, but I can’t figure out how. It looks real. It feels real.”

Teddy began to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he watched the girl wander towards the exit with a look of confusion on her face. If he didn’t know that it was impossible he would have almost thought that the girl was a…

Oh.

Oh no.

Teddy hurled down the aisle frantically looking for Uncle Harry or one of the Weasleys. Where were they? They were always underfoot whenever Teddy wanted to get away from them and now that he actually NEEDED them, they had all vanished. Finally he spotted a familiar head of untidy black hair over by the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and without missing a step he grabbed Harry by the arm and began to drag him towards the door.

“Whoa there. What’s the hurry?”

“There. Was. A girl.” Teddy managed to pant out. “Back by the new product section. She said they were CGI or something and seemed really confused.”

Harry was also more than a little confused. “Remind me what CGI is again? I think I heard your Grandpa Arthur talking about it once but I can’t remember…”

“They’re a Muggle thing.”

“Oh. Oh hell. Are you sure she wasn’t just a muggleborn student?”

“A muggleborn would know what magic was if they were in Diagon Alley.”

Harry was now looking as worried as Teddy as they rushed out the entrance of the shop. “Think quickly and think hard Teddy. Which way did she go?”

Teddy raised a trembling hand and pointed towards the looming archway that marked the entrance to Knockturn Alley.

Sadie Blevins was having a very strange day. Sure, it had started out normal enough. She and her mom were out shopping for new clothes for school when her brother’s school had called. Apparently Laurie had disagreed rather strongly with something that he had eaten with lunch and was now being violently ill all over the nurse's office. Mrs. Blevins had been rather frazzled at the news and as a result had rather uncharacteristically said yes when Sadie asked if she could stay to look around a bit more and catch a ride back. For a minute it had looked like she was going to say no, like she normally would, but then her eyes seemed to glaze over and she said it would be quite all right. It was really quite odd. Sadie wondered if it had anything to do with the creepy man standing in the street outside the shop who was carrying around some sort of weird stick. There was no real reason why these two events should be connected of course, but they were both rather odd and therefore something deep inside Sadie’s subconscious had connected them.

The fact that the creepy man kept on showing up no matter where Sadie went was even more unnerving, but the weirdest and most terrifying thing of all was that Sadie could not see the man’s face. Whenever she tried to look at him (secretly so he wouldn’t notice) her eyes seemed to just...skip over...his face. Sadie got out of the shop as quickly as she could, but the strange man kept following her. She took as many random turns as she could and tried to lose him in the crowd, but it was useless. Normally she would think to call for help from a grownup, but somehow, just like she couldn’t directly look at the man’s face, the idea never seemed to occur to her.

Then it happened. She was looking for somewhere to hide when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small bar tucked between two larger stores. Without thinking about the fact that this bar had never been here in all of the years Sadie had spent walking past this spot, Sadie ducked inside. She looked around the inside of the pub and wondered if she shouldn’t have taken her chances with the Faceless Man outside. The people in here were weird. The same sort of weird as the Faceless Man, although she got the distinct impression the Faceless Man was a very bad sort of weird, and the people in this strange pub were not necessarily so. For starters, most of the people here seemed to be wearing robes instead of trousers like normal people did. Her stomach gave a little lurch when she saw some of them carried large sticks in the same way that the Faceless Man did. There was also what appeared to be a Little Person sitting at one of the tables in the corner and he had some very unfortunate facial features. If Sadie had been a bit younger, she might have called him a goblin, but she didn’t believe in such things anymore and besides, it was rude to mock the less fortunate.

Sadie looked over into a corner of the pub and noticed a boy around her age sitting alone as if he was waiting for someone. He seemed normal enough. Although there was a split second where she could have sworn that his hair turned green for just an instant before settling down again. Sadie decided that he was probably a safe person to ask for help, and went over to approach him when she heard the pub door open again.

It was the Faceless Man.

He slowly stepped into the pub as if he knew that Sadie was trapped and there was nowhere else to run. Despite being surrounded by people Sadie felt very much alone. The Faceless Man swept his anonymous gaze across the room before it finally settled on her. He paused. If she could see his face, somehow Sadie knew that the Faceless Man was grinning. He lifted his hand and moved a single finger in an unmistakable beckoning gesture. Then the door flew open a second time and a very cheerful red haired boy blasted into the room chattering something about Pepsi and ferrets to his father. The Faceless Man seemed taken aback by the interruption but hesitated even further when a man with glasses and messy black hair shortly followed the boy and his father into the room. The Faceless Man seemed to be slightly afraid of him for some reason. Sadie wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth though and when the red haired boy dragged his father towards the back of the bar, quickly followed them.

When she exited the pub she saw the father and son entering a brick archway that seemed to be making some sort of rumbling sound. Was it moving? Nah, it must have been a train passing by or something. She darted through the archway into a street that was full of the strange people that she had seen hanging around in the pub, only there were now a lot more of them. She turned around determined to take her chances with the Faceless Man only to find that the archway she had just passed through was now gone. This was shaping up to be a very weird day indeed.

Sadie hurried down the street determined not to look at anything or anyone. Even if the way she had come here had suddenly turned into a brick wall, like it had seemed to, surely there would be an exit down this street somewhere. The people in robes were still everywhere though and some of the stores she darted past looked very strange indeed. Out of the corner of her eye Sadie noticed what seemed to be a pet store (was that an owl?) and some form of department store that had a strange looking broom, of all things, in its front window in the same way that another store might have displayed a piece of priceless jewelry or an especially lavish dress. But Sadie refused to stop and stare. That is, until a huge wall of color suddenly forced itself upon her eyes. This particular shop was full of children around her own age as well as their families and resembled nothing so much as a toy store. Well, there wasn’t any harm in stopping in just for a second, right?

The closer that Sadie looked at everything in this strange store (the name of which seemed to involve something about weasels, but she couldn’t be certain) the more astounded she became. Surely it was false advertising to suggest that someone could actually float inside of those giant bubbles they seemed to be advertising? And were they really advertising laxatives to children (she assumed this is what the Defecation Delights must be, correctly as it turned out)? This really was the world’s biggest lawsuit waiting to happen.

Sadie noticed that one of the boys from the bar (did she know him from somewhere?) had wandered into the aisle and she remarked to him about how odd everything was. The boy seemed puzzled when Sadie brought up CGI or trick mirrors and Sadie decided to make a strategic exit. Clearly the poor kid was still a few years behind and couldn’t comprehend the fact that everything in the world that seemed to be magic was really just a series of lighting tricks and some judiciously placed wires. He probably still believed in Father Christmas and everything and who was Sadie to dispel him of his fantasies? She had learned this lesson the hard way when she had told her brother Laurie that it wasn’t the Tooth Fairy who hid money under his pillow a few years back. Her parents had been most cross.

At any rate Sadie had now left the Weasel Store behind and had once again begun to seek out some form of exit back into the more familiar streets of London. She spotted what seemed to be a kind of side street that was heading in the direction she estimated was the right way, so she began to go down it. The temperature suddenly seemed to drop a few degrees and it looked like there were far less people down this side alley, and the people who were here seemed to be far less friendly as well. The looks that Sadie was getting seemed to be almost predatory. Then what little sound remained in the alley died away completely and the handful of people that were outside suddenly vanished into their stores or homes. At the end of the street stood a solitary figure. One that Sadie recognized instantly. The Faceless Man.

The Faceless Man raised his strange stick again and the cobblestones that Sadie had been standing on suddenly began to crack and formed several pairs of hands which grasped at Sadie’s ankles. Sadie screamed and staggered backwards only to bump into the brick wall that lined one of the shops. Almost before she knew it, more hands had formed from the brick and began to grasp at Sadie’s shoulders and yank at her hair. Sadie screamed, for that was all that she could do. The Faceless Man began to walk forward.

Suddenly there was a bang and the Faceless Man was forced to duck as a burst of some sort of red light soared past his head, missing him by inches. It must have been a flare of some sort. Sadie tried to turn her head despite the still grasping hands of brick and cobblestone. At the entrance of the alley, from which she had just come, stood a man with large glasses and messy black hair. Behind him stood the boy that Sadie had just been talking to.

“Get back Teddy!”, the dark haired man said. “This is more serious than I thought. Go get Uncle George and stay out of the way. I’ll take care of things here.”

The boy, who Sadie assumed was Teddy, darted back towards the store. The Faceless Man seemed to take this as a personal affront of sorts and snarled something that did not sound like English. A bolt of green light (another flare?) flew in the direction of Teddy, but the man with the messy hair moved faster than Sadie would have thought possible and pulled Teddy out of the way. The dark haired man turned towards his opponent and Sadie could see that he was truly angry now. Scary angry.

“That,” he began. “Was a VERY bad idea.”

The Faceless Man seemed to realize this as well and before the other man could do anything else, he had vanished into thin air. As soon as he was gone the hands that had come out of the wall and road disappeared as well and Sadie was free. She fell to her knees with a sob. What was happening to her? One strange thing she could explain away. She had done it before. But this? This was completely outside of her realm of comprehension.

The dark haired man was next to her quickly and Teddy watched from a little further away.

“Don’t worry,” the man said. “He’s gone now. You’re safe”

“What is going on here?” Sadie managed to choke.

“That,” the man grimly replied. “Is an excellent question.”


	3. The Hatstall

It was already early evening when Harry stood at the corner of a cozy looking residential street watching from a distance as several members of the Muggle Relations Division of the ministry returned Sadie Blevins to her sobbing mother. After making the usual assurances, as well as a very carefully modified memory charm, the wizards who had delivered Sadie back to her home left. Of the three of them that were present, two from Muggle Relations and one trained obliviator, two of them quickly apparated as soon as they could no longer be seen from any windows. The lone remaining wizard, a younger man in his late twenties with slightly curly brown hair, approached Harry.

“How did it go, Justin?”

Justin Finch-Fletchley let out a long suffering sigh.

“We’re going to have to schedule a follow up or two. I am not sure if some of those memory charms properly took on the girl. You know they don’t work as well on younger children right? The girl is just barely young enough that she might still have some form of immunity to them. It’s the reason why muggle children have stories of monsters under the bed. The little kid has a run in with a boggart and they still half remember it after the family has been obliviated.”

Harry and Justin began to walk down the street together as the lamps began to gradually flicker on. It would be very easy for either of the men to apparate away of course, but Harry figured it would be a good a time as any to stretch his legs. It had been a long and stressful day for him.

Justin began to speak again. “Any word on what happened? Was it a muggle-baiting?”

“If it was, it was an especially nasty one. Whoever that man was threw an Unforgivable at Teddy. Not quite the run of the mill drunken pureblood teenagers you guys usually have to deal with.”

“Merlin. So do you think it could be something else? Even if she was being chased by a wizard there is no way that girl should have been able to stumble into the Leaky Cauldron like that.”

“We really don’t know. It could be some sort of political thing, but it could be personal as well.”

“You think the family ran afoul of a wizard somehow?”

“Not her family. At least not directly” Harry said darkly. He nodded toward a brightly lit house at the end of the road. “That’s where Teddy lives with his grandmother. Bit of a coincidence, that. Too much of one in my opinion. Teddy actually recognized her after a few minutes.”

Justin nodded in understanding. “So you think they could be trying to get to Teddy, or you for that matter, by placing the girl down the street under the imperius?”

“Could be. Then again, it could be someone who wanted to make some sort of statement about Muggle Wizard relations who just got carried away. The investigation is ongoing and I’ve probably already said too much. I should go home and get some rest. Kingsley will murder me if he finds out that I spent half the afternoon of my day off getting in duels with faceless men and convincing Rita Skeeter that the Statute of Secrecy has NOT fallen. Not that you have had an easy day of it either from what Dawlish was screaming about.”

Justin groaned. “He was ranting about Ceiling Boy wasn’t he?”

“Yep. Wanted to set up a task force and everything.”

“Of course he did, and I just bet that had nothing to do with the boy being the son of Harry Potter’s ex-girlfriend”.

Harry stopped abruptly and his jaw dropped. “Wait. WHAT? The boy is Cho’s kid?”

Justin smirked. “Yeah. Talk about a blast from the past there.”

“Good Godric, she went off the grid ages ago. I didn’t even know she got married.”

Justin snorted. “Yep. Awkward situation all around. She apparently married a muggle and her husband and in-laws have no idea that she is a witch. She practically begged us to call the obliviators. That is going to be an awkward conversation in about eight years. Didn’t get a chance to meet her husband but her in-laws are, well…” Justin shuddered. “The less said about them the better, but little Cedric is downright adorable.”

“Did she really…”

“Oh, yes.”

“And people said it was weird when I named my children after the fallen.”

Justin made a coughing sound that sounded suspiciously like “Severus”.

“Oh sure. Laugh it up. I’m not the one whose wife almost named their daughter Sabrina if what Ginny told me is true.”

Justin went pink and muttered something darkly under his breath about purebloods failing to understand Muggle pop culture.

“To be fair,” Harry granted. “Hermione just barely talked Luna out of naming her twins Oz and Gandalf.”

“Well at the very least this should stop Dawlish from suggesting that Ginny had Cho buried in an unmarked grave out of jealousy like the tabloids keep hinting. How Romilda Vane managed to skate away from that libel lawsuit is beyond me. She is getting to be worse than Skeeter, Harry.”

The two men stopped in front of the house that Harry had gestured to earlier. Harry turned and shook Justin’s hand.

“Welp,” he said. “This is where I leave you. I promised the godson I would check in with him tonight. You and Eleanor should stop by for dinner sometime.”

“I wouldn’t say no to that. I guess we just have to find a sitter for Isaac and Meredith.”

“Bring them along. Meredith and Lily can babble at each other and Isaac can help Albus and James chase Kreacher.”

“How your house elf hasn’t died of a heart attack yet is beyond me.”

“Kreacher managed to survive James’ last birthday party and that involved Freddie Weasley and the Finnigan triplets. He will outlive us all. Besides, don’t tell him I told you this, but Kreacher loves playing hide and go seek with the kids. He is a big softie at heart.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Justin replied. He patted his pocket. “If you ever need me, or any of the rest of the old crowd, we’re just a coin away. Things have been getting weird again and we could all use a few more wands watching our backs.”

Justin turned on his heel and vanished with the distinct pop that heralded a wizard aparating.

Harry walked up to the front of the Tonks’ house and knocked on the door. As he waited for the reply he meditatively looked around the surrounding yards. One could almost not tell that this house belonged to wizards. The only giveaways that Harry could see were a lone garden gnome peeking from behind the trash bins and a very slight shimmer in the air that signified where the house’s wards began. Ordinarily the wards would be completely invisible, but Harry Potter’s godson lived here so they needed to be a bit stronger than the usual residential wards. Hence the shimmer.

The door opened and a tall woman in her late fifties with rapidly greying hair stood in the doorway.

“Hello Andromeda,” said Harry. “Is Teddy still up? I told him I’d stop by after I made sure the muggle girl got home.”

“I’ll be surprised if he sleeps a wink all night,” Andromeda said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “He’s heading out tomorrow and he spent the afternoon hyped up on sugar and getting the Avada Kedavra thrown at him.”

“Ah,” Harry said with a wince. “I guess he told you already.”

“Yes. He was quite thrilled about the whole thing, which I guess is an improvement from the melancholy he was in this morning. Harry, he said the man in the alley didn’t have a face.”

Harry entered the house and took the offered bottle of CracklePop that Andromeda offered him. “Yeah, it would seem so. We think it might be a new spell designed to hide someone’s appearance.”

“One can’t help but wonder why they didn’t just use some Polyjuice Potion.” Andromeda said in a worried tone.

“I know what you’re thinking. Yes, it could have been Dolohov. The hiding of the face is...consistent with his injuries. It could be just some normal pureblood fruitcake though who wanted to hex a muggle but couldn’t get any Polyjuice, though.”

“But you think it's Dolohov.”

“I worry it's Dolohov. There is a difference. When you’ve been hunting dark wizards for too long it makes you liable to see Death Eaters under every rock.”

Harry drained the last of his drink and clapped his hands together. “But enough of the doom and gloom. I can deal with it on Monday. Where is Teddy at?”

“He’s probably out on the roof. He sits there when he is excited or nervous.”

Harry went upstairs careful to avoid tripping over the large trunk in a doorway that was spilling clothes all over the hallway. In the corner of a room a large jet-black owl hooted crossly.

“Easy there, Bellerophon,” Harry said. “It’s just me.”

The owl still did not seem to approve terribly much, but satisfied itself with a ruffle of feathers and a glare that could rival a Basilisk.

Harry carefully stepped over the various junk in the room and pretended not to see the Portable Hole-in-a-Wall which was lying on Teddy’s bed. Harry looked out the window to see the eleven year old boy perched on the edge of the roof like an adolescent gargoyle with his hair now a familiar shade of blue that matched the evening sky. Harry carefully maneuvered himself out the window and sat down on the roof next to Teddy.

“Sickle for your thoughts?”

Teddy sighed. “Make it a galleon and then we have a deal.”

Harry laughed. “We’ll have to see about that. I don’t want you putting on half a stone in candy off the trolley alone tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Teddy sighed again. “Tomorrow. Harry what if the Hat...”

“Don’t worry too much about the hat. It knows what it is doing. Professor Longbottom was convinced that he belonged in Hufflepuff and the hat had to spend the better part of three minutes talking him into Gryffindor, but look at him now.”

“But Grandma was in Slytherin and all of the Weasleys have been in Gryffindor, and all the Potters have been in…”

“And your cousin Sirius was in Gryffindor. He had a much stronger Slytherin legacy than you do. Your parents were in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, remember? Besides, there are good Slytherin wizards as well.”

“Name five, and I swear to Merlin if you say Severus Snape or Grandma again…”

Harry laughed and held up his hands in surrender. “All right, all right. You know we’ll still love you even if that hat pronounces you a squib and sends you on the train home right? Much less if you join the house that made your Grandmother what she is. Your Uncle Neville has also told me that Professor Pritchard is a good sort. Not to mention Severus Snape, Horace Slughorn…” Teddy groaned, but Harry continued. “...Alastor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Merlin himself.”

Teddy’s jaw dropped. “You’re taking the mickey.”

“Nope. He doesn’t talk about it much because of the Death Eater nonsense, but the minister wore the green and silver, and even if that house turned out a hundred Death Eaters it also created the greatest auror in the past century. Not to even mention bloody Merlin.”

Teddy giggled at Harry’s swearing.

Harry put his arm around his godson’s shoulders. “It’ll be alright Teddy. You’ll be having such a blast you’ll forget to come home for Christmas.”

Teddy adopted a contemplative look. “What if they hate me Harry? You’ve heard what they call me sometimes, right? Monsterblood. What if I don’t have any friends?”

Harry smiled. “Do you want the Potter answer or the Weasley answer?”

“Err, both?”

Harry laughed again. “All right. The Potter answer first. Everyone can find friends if they look for them and are willing to be one in return. If your cousin Draco can do it then so can you.”

“And the Weasley answer?”

“If you can’t control it, own it. Give me your best scary face!”

Teddy grimaced for a second before his skin went pale, his eyes turned red, and his nose retracted into his face until there was just a pair of snake-like slits left. Harry jumped back, startled, and nearly fell off the roof.

“Ah! Maybe don’t start with that one. McGonagall is going to have her hands full. The son of a Marauder who was raised by Weasleys and can shapeshift. Hogwarts isn’t going to know what hit it! That reminds me...” Harry reached into the pocket of his cloak and pulled out an old and faded piece of parchment. “...you may be interested in this. It was my second most valuable possession next to my invisibility cloak while I was at Hogwarts. May it serve you well.”

Teddy was a bit puzzled. “What is it?”

Harry smirked. “Oh, I am sure that you’ll figure it out.”

Something inside of Teddy’s mind clicked and his jaw dropped for the second time in five minutes as he gaped at the parchment. “Wait a second. I think I’ve heard Uncle George talk about this thing. Is it…”

Harry winked. “As I said, you’ll figure it out. Oh, and if you ever really need something, I mean REALLY need something, I would highly recommend a walk around the seventh floor. That is one of the few things that piece of parchment won’t tell you about.”

Teddy very carefully folded up the piece of parchment and hugged Harry.

“Are you sure that you really want to give this thing to a future Slytherin?”

“If that Slytherin is my godson? Absolutely.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

It was already half past ten in the morning when the Knight Bus pulled up outside of KIngs Cross Station with a loud bang. At least a dozen very harried students and their families sprang from the bus while trying to hold on to their luggage.

“Sorry about that.” called out the bus’ operator Stan Shunpike. “That shortcut was meant to be a bit shorter.”

“You would think,” grumbled Andromeda Tonks as she tried to untangle the cage of a very upset Bellerophon from the pile of luggage that had been thrown around as the bus braked, “that that would be taken into account. There is a reason taking the Goblin Tunnels while going through London is known as The Shortcut rather than The Way. I would like to see a normal London street that was blocked off for an hour and a half because a troll knocked the roof in.”

“This whole thing is very much still a work in progress.” said Harry as he helped Teddy grab his trunk and checked to make sure that nothing else was being left behind. “The magical underground really will be much more efficient when it is completed.”

“I still don’t like it.” grumbled Andromeda. “It’s like being buried alive.”

Harry glanced toward the back of the bus. “Ginny,” he called. “Is everything alright up there?

Ginny Potter stumbled down the staircase that led to the upper deck of the bus. She was carrying the very young and tired Lily in her arms. Her oldest son, James, promptly overtook his mother by sliding down the banister before his mother could grab him. The middle child, Albus, toddled after his mother quietly without causing nearly as much of a disruption as his older brother.

“James,” Ginny yelped as he went whizzing past. “Stop that this moment.”

James ignored his mother and promptly ran over to embrace Teddy as the family disembarked from the bus.

“I don’t want you to go.” said the four year old boy mournfully. “Albus and Lily can’t make the silly faces like you do.”

Teddy embraced his godbrother. 

“Don’t worry.” He reassured him. “I’ll be sure to write you guys loads of letters that Aunt Ginny can read to you.”

James was not entirely reassured, but Harry was beginning to nervously glance at the large clock on the wall so they all quickly began to maneuver Teddy’s belongings through the station. They had to begin to do this quite a bit more rapidly when Teddy’s owl began to flap its wings and scream at passersby, thereby drawing a fair amount of attention to the group.

“Finally,” Harry breathed with a sigh of relief. “There’s the platform. You all know what to do.”

Sure enough the wall between platforms nine and ten sat in front with a que of wizards lurking around it waiting for their turn to go through the entrance while at the same time trying NOT to look like they were in line so as not to attract more muggle attention. Teddy noticed that as soon as they got in line a large number of the witches and wizards began to point at them and whisper. Such were the annoyances of travelling with the savior of the wizarding world and an internationally known former Quidditch star. Before they knew it, the line died down and it was their turn to go through to the platform.

“Do you want me to go through with you?” asked Harry. “The first time is always a bit nerve wracking.”

Teddy shook his head. He had this. Not to mention he did not want anyone from Slytherin to see and think he was too scared to cross over to the platform by himself. Teddy grabbed his cart and charged for the wall. In his cage Bellerophon extended his wings as fully as he could and let out a piercing screech that made Andromeda put her head in her hands as every Muggle on the platform turned towards the sound. The last thing Teddy saw before he hit the wall was Harry and Ginny discretely pulling their wands out to begin casting confundus charms on the witnesses. Then, for a split second, everything was dark. Then he was on the platform.

Unfortunately there was some sort of a sign in sheet right past the entrance with another line to match so Teddy promptly crashed his cart into the girl at the back of the line almost before he knew what was happening. The girl, who was already wearing her school robes and had her wavy light brown hair tucked back in a ponytail, spun around and drew her wand before Teddy could react. She glared at Teddy when she saw him and tucked her wand away when she realized he was not a threat.

“Watch it.” She scolded. “That sort of thing is going to get you hexed.”

Teddy quietly muttered his apologies and groaned inwardly when he noted that the girl did not yet have any house colors on her robes. She must be a first year like him and would probably be in several of his classes. This would doubtless be a fantastic first impression. The girl sniffed at his apology and turned back towards who Teddy assumed were some of the school prefects with the sign in sheet with her nose upturned as if Teddy was something unpleasant stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

Teddy was next and his grandmother and the Potters finally came through the barrier just as he was approaching the two older teenagers with the sign in sheet.

“Sorry about that.” Teddy called. “I can’t catch a train without threatening the Statute of Secrecy it seems.”

Harry laughed. “Oh, this is nothing. The Obliviators have at least a dozen people stationed at the station just to deal with everyone freaked out by the owls.”

One of the prefects, a shorter girl with her dark black hair in a stern looking bun, coughed irritably.

“Name?” she asked coldly.

“Right. Teddy. Teddy Lupin. It might also be listed as Edward Lupin.”

The girl raised her eyebrow slightly and darted her eyes toward the Potter family.

“Ah. Of course.”

The other prefect, a tall boy with a rather intimidating head of blonde curls, bounced forward and shoke Teddy’s hand.

“Oh lighten up Felicia.” he scolded his partner. “You’re frightening the first years. Hello Teddy, I’m Kevin Copperfield, the Head Boy this year. Her frostiness over there is Felicia Blackstone, the Head Girl. We are delighted to have you with us this year.”

Harry walked over and shook Kevin’s hand as well. “They have a sign in sheet this year?” he asked curiously. “That’s new.”

“Yep,” chirped Kevin. “The Headmistress decided it was a good idea. Apparently there was an incident back during the Dumbledore days where some kids missed the train and crashed a flying car into the Whomping Willow or something. Or was it the Astronomy Tower? I can’t remember which one it was.”

“It was the Willow,” Harry murmured in a way that made Teddy suspect that Harry may have had personal knowledge of the incident.

“Anyhow,” Kevin continued. “It was decided that a sign in sheet was a good idea. It’ll be good to have you around Teddy. My brother, Josh, is a firstie this year as well so you might see him around. Just look for the kid who looks like me if I were an eleven year old.”

Teddy quickly signed his name to the sheet and maneuvered his trunk towards the train. He looked around. There was not a single person he recognized apart from the Potters and his Grandmother. Teddy suddenly felt very much alone.

Andromeda gave Teddy a quick nudge.

“Hair.” She murmured quietly.

Teddy glanced upwards and was mortified to notice that his hair had begun to turn a sickly shade of green rather than its natural sandy color. Teddy closed his eyes and scrunched his face in concentration until his hair adjusted itself to a more normal shade once again. There was an irritated whistle from the train and the movement on the platform became a lot more urgent as families said their last goodbyes and children frantically tried to get their luggage onto the train before it left. Harry grabbed the other end of Teddy’s trunk and helped him hoist it onto the train. 

Teddy hugged his grandmother one last time and shook Harry’s hand in a firm manner that belied his inner nervousness.

“Well,” he said. “I guess this is it.”

Harry smiled. “I guess it is.”

“Be sure to tell me if you catch that faceless guy who tried to kill me, alright?”

Harry winced and Andromeda scowled. “I’ll try to keep you posted.”

“In a way that will not give him nightmares I hope.” said Andromeda sharply.

“Of course.”

At this point the Hogwarts Express actually started to move and Teddy had to make a rather undignified running jump in order to avoid being left behind. He leaned out the doorway and waved until his family disappeared into the steam. Feeling far less excited than a first year Hogwarts student probably should, Teddy turned and tried to find a suitable compartment.

He looked down the aisle towards the rear of the train, but there were a particularly rowdy group of boys back there playing what appeared to be a broomless version of Quidditch in the corridor. Teddy did not yet feel comfortable dealing with obnoxious older students so he turned towards the front of the train instead. Surprisingly it was actually considerably quieter there. One of the compartments was actually still empty and Teddy pulled his luggage into it.

Teddy placed Bellerophon’s cage on the seat and heaved his trunk into the luggage rack before collapsing with a sigh onto the row across from the owl. He closed his eyes and was just about to drift off to sleep when the door flew open with a bang and four other boys swept into the compartment. Teddy opened his eyes just a crack and noticed that two of the students were wearing green. The remaining pair (who seemed to be first years) also seemed to have familiar sneers on their faces that reminded him far too much of his Aunt Narcissa when she was in a bad mood. Slytherins. Well, this was just perfect.

The ringleader of the group, a large dark haired boy who seemed to be in his third or fourth year, and resembled a gorilla more than anything else, shoved Teddy off the bench.

“Oy,” he snarled. “Budge up. Plenty of room for all of us.”

The other student that was already bedecked in Slytherin robes, a skinny rat faced boy with not a speck of hair on his head, snickered.

“You tell ‘em Car. Gotta let those first years know who’s boss.”

Teddy scooted over to the corner of the car and wished for his godfather’s invisibility cloak. He looked over at the two first years. One of them was extremely short with his jet black hair neatly slicked back in a way that was all the rage among some of the smuger purebloods lately. The other boy was already dressed in robes and what seemed to be a pair of white gloves (even Teddy could tell that the outfit probably cost more than some people’s yearly salary) with shoulder length hair in black and white stripes. Teddy felt it made him look like a particularly ill tempered badger, but he had enough sense to realize this observation would probably not go over well if said aloud.

The boy with the badger hair rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Really Caracas,” he began.

“Car.” the Gorilla boy snarled. “Only my mum calls me Caracas.”

Badger boy waved his hand to signify that it was of little importance. “It hardly seems wise to begin this nonsense so early in the school year. The train hasn’t even left London and you and Rataxes are already well on your way to getting yourselves hauled to the headmistress again. Her cattiness will be most displeased.”

Teddy winced. Somehow this boy’s nickname for Professor McGonagall did not seem terribly affectionate in the way that Uncle George did when he called her similar things.

“Jasper has a point you know.” said the short dark haired boy. He gestured toward Teddy. “You never know where the next Dark Lord will pop up. This guy here could be sorted into Slytherin with us tonight and you could wake up with a wand to your throat.”

Badger boy, who seemed to be named Jasper, huffed irritably. “Oh please. Look at the child. If he’s Slytherin material then I am a murtlap. I bet he’s not even pureblood. Use your eyes for Salazar’s sake, Callum.”

Callum peered at Teddy closer. “Well,” he asked. “Are you?”

Teddy managed to summon up whatever tiny spark of his father’s Gryffindor courage lay within him and sat up as straight as he could. “So what if I am.” he replied. “Better muggle blood than being forced to take the Gaunt route.”

Callum’s eyes grew cold, but it seemed like the other three boys either didn’t hear him or were unfamiliar with the fact that the Ancient and Most Noble House of Gaunt had, in the words of Rita Skeeter in her best-selling autobiography of Lord Vodemort, a family tree that more resembled a family wreath. Teddy had not truly understood what Rita Skeeter had meant by that, but it had made his Grandmother gasp and Aunt Ginny flee the room in hysterical laughter when he had inquired about it at dinner that night, so had stored it away in his mind specifically for the purpose of dealing with uppity Slytherins. Of course he had not intended to use it so soon.

Callum peered at him closer with increasing suspicion. 

“What’s your name?” he asked. “I know I’ve seen you before somewhere. The society pages of The Daily Prophet perhaps?”

Teddy stood up and nervously placed his hand near his wand. 

“Edward Remus Lupin. Friends and family call me Teddy.”

Jasper raised a single eyebrow.

“Ah,” he almost purred. “The Monsterblood. I might have known.”

At this point Teddy truly did draw his wand and angrily lept in the direction of Jasper only to have Callum tackle him from the side. Jasper sniffed disdainfully and lifted his shoes off the ground as Teddy and Callum grappled there trying to aim their wands at each other even though they could do nothing with them other than shoot sparks at each other. Caracas and Rataxes watched from the other side of the cabin with an almost hungry look in their eyes but, to Teddy’s surprise and immense relief, did not lift a finger to help Callum.

Callum finally managed to break free and managed to regain his wand. With a smile he stood up and pointed his wand at Teddy just as the doors to the cabin flew open.

“What in the name of Gormlaith’s wand is going on in here?” barked a red haired girl, who seemed to be about seventeen. “I am still jet lagged from flying into this godforsaken country and now I have to deal with a bunch of first years fighting in the aisle like you were in a No-Maj fist fight.”

The girl noticed Teddy lying on the floor and with an exasperated huff pulled him to his feet.

“Move it kid.” she barked. “Leaving you in the compartment with these folks is a recipe for disaster. Where is your luggage?

Teddy gestured to the luggage rack.

“All right.” The girl continued. “Grab your stuff and move next door. You can stay with my idiot brother until we get to school.”

Before Teddy realized what was happening he was being ushered down the hall to another train cabin that only had a single occupant. Teddy immediately recognized him as the red-haired American boy he had run into in Diagon Alley the previous day. Now that he thought about it, the red haired girl who had just pulled him out of a train carriage full of Slytherins had an American accent as well.

The girl practically shoved Teddy into the carriage. “Here, my brother can entertain you until we get to school. I need to go talk to one of those prefects.”

Then, with a slam, the door shut and Teddy was alone with the American boy, who quickly put down the American comic book he had been reading (it seemed to involve a man with a green magic ring fighting zombies in some way). “That’s Cassie for ya.” he began. “Fuss, fuss, fuss. Won’t leave a man alone for a moment. I’m Ben by the way. Ben Calderon-Boot. You’ll have to excuse my sister’s crabiness. She isn’t particularly fond of having to transfer schools during her last year.”

“Yeah,” Teddy said thoughtfully. “That would tend to make one rather irritable. I’m Teddy Lupin. You guys are from America then?”

“Yep. Land of the free; home of the brave. I was due to start at Ilvermorny this year when my dad took this job in London, so now I’m here with you fellas.”

“Ilvermorny?”

“Oh come on. You have to have heard of Ilvermorny. The American wizarding school? Best in the world, if you ask me. Or at least in the States that is. I don’t know very much about Hogwarts over here in England, but the folks over at Charmbridge Academy have always seemed to be a bit stuck up, and the people at Alma Aleron are nice but weird. “

Teddy had never heard of any of these schools, but he knew that there were other wizarding schools out there, his Aunt Fleur had gone to one, so this didn’t come as too much of a surprise.

Ben continued talking. 

“I am a bit disappointed that I never found out whether I was meant to be Thunderbird or a Wampus, though.”

“Huh?”

“Oh right. British. Those are two of the Ilvermorny school houses. I figured I would have ended up in one of those two houses seeing as I am nowhere near studious enough for Horned Serpent and really don’t see myself as the healer type, so that rules out Pukwudgie.”

“What in the name of Merlin is a Pukwudgie?”

“They’re kind of like goblins who live in the forests. Except not really. It’s complicated.”

Teddy lay his head down on the seat to try and get some rest, but Ben continued to prattle on.

“You guys also have houses right?”

Teddy decided that the early afternoon nap that he had been planning on was clearly no longer in the cards.

“Yeah. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. At the feast tonight there will be this magic hat that reads your mind and tells you where to go.”

“Ah, kind of like Ilvermorny’s animal statues. I see.”

Teddy honestly didn’t see, but he continued.

“If you are brave or reckless you usually get put in Gryffindor. If you are loyal or bland you will most likely get Hufflepuff. If you are really, really smart or socially awkward Ravenclaw will snap you right up, and if you are either ambitious or are a complete arse then Slytherin is definitely for you.”

Ben looked thoughtful.

“So probably Hufflepuff or Gryffindor for me then. I think my Mom was a Ravenclaw though. She didn’t talk about school much.”

“I thought you were from the States?”

“Yeah,” Ben sighed. “We are. My parents met when my Mom was on some sort of world tour after she graduated from school and she ended up staying in America with my Dad. She isn’t in the picture anymore though.”

“I’m sorry about that. If it’s any consolation, I know how you feel. My parents aren’t around anymore either.”

“Oh, she’s around. She just decided that she was ‘called to walk a different path’ from the rest of us. Things got messy.” Ben shuddered. “ Dear God, did they ever get messy. Hence the change of scenery for Dad, Cassie, and me.”

The boys fell into a moment of awkward silence after that, but Ben quickly perked up and tossed an issue of one of his comic books over to Teddy.

“Here you go Tedster. Some of the good old Blackest Night should cheer you right up.”

Teddy opened up the comic (he assumed it was Muggle because the pictures remained still), but he was soon completely lost. Ben quickly noticed his confusion and tossed him another comic book starring Batman.

“On second thought, Blackest Night might be a bit heavy on the continuity for a first timer. That Batman issue is probably a better bet. I don’t know how much you know about Batman, but…”

“Oh, I know who he is. Grandpa Arthur...I mean Professor Weasley the Muggle Studies teacher, takes me to see Muggle movies during the summer sometimes. He’s just set up Muggle Culture Nights at Hogwarts in the past year and the Slytherins have apparently developed an unhealthy obsession with Batman. They say he would definitely be one of them if he were a wizard.”

“Well, he is kind of cunning, and he certainly can be a...what do you British people call it...an arse...at times.”

The sound of a loud argument broke out in the corridor.

“Ah,” said Ben, putting on his best spooky voice. “Behold. The sister cometh.”

Teddy giggled just as the door flew open again revealing Cassie Calderon-Boot and several other people that Teddy recognized. Teddy groaned inwardly as he noticed the girl that he had accidentally rammed his cart into on the platform and the stern face of Felicia Blackstone, both of whom glared at him. Kevin Copperfield, on the other hand, was still as cheerful as the last time that Teddy had seen him and gave the two first year boys a jaunty wave.

“Hello, hello. Good to see you again Ben. You too Teddy. You haven’t gotten into any more fights in the last five minutes have you?”

Teddy winced and confirmed that he had not.

Kevin clapped his hands. “Excellent. Well then there seems to be no harm done so…”

“Are you serious?” Felicia snarled. “The boy attacked the Nott boy not five minutes into the train journey. We were given specific instructions to prevent such...incidents. I will not tolerate any of these New Dawn vigilante attacks on my watch.”

“Now, Felicia...”

“Don’t you now Felicia me!”

Kevin let out a loud sigh and turned to Teddy again.

“Teddy. Did you throw the first punch?”

Teddy cringed. “Physically or metaphorically?”

“I guess that kind of answers that question then. Did you attack him to make some sort of political statement?”

“No. The boy, I think his name was Jasper, called me...a very nasty name.”

Felicia threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

“Oh the horror.” She cried. “ He called him a name. Copperfield, the Lupin boy is a half-blood so there is no way that there was any name that could justify…”

Teddy closed his eyes and gritted his teeth before continuing.

“He called me a Monsterblood.” he whispered. “I lost my temper and jumped him and that Callum kid tackled me.”

A silence fell over the cabin. Cassie and Ben seemed confused, but Kevin froze and the first year girl standing behind him let out a little gasp. Felicia stopped shouting, but continued to grumble darkly.

“Well,” said Kevin finally. “I think we can all agree that was a shitty thing for him to do.”

Felecia shrieked and waved a hand that encompassed the three first years in the cabin while Ben tried not to laugh.

“Right. Maybe not the best word choice. That was certainly...not a very nice thing for him to say. I think we can let you off with a warning this time.”

This displeased Felicia considerably.

“Oh, this totally hasn’t a thing to do with you trying to suck up to Lupin’s godfather to get into the Auror program does it? We can’t make exceptions even for the kids of so-called heroes. It will lead to complete chaos! The boy has to develop a thicker skin about these names if he is going to go out in public like the rest of us mortals.”

Kevin shrugged his shoulders.

“Fine then.” he said. “I’ll give him detention. Of course those Slytherins should probably get it as well. Do you want to be the one responsible for getting Caracas Warrington and Rataxes Montague suspended again? Do you want Jasper Pyrites’ father to start whispering things in the ears of the school governors? First years squabbling may not look good on your Head Girl resume, but a Slytherin uprising, a PREVENTABLE Slytherin uprising, looks far worse.”

Felicia opened and closed her mouth in a manner that resembled nothing so much as a fish for several seconds before letting out a shriek and storming out of the compartment.

“You’ll have to forgive the other Head,” Kevin said apologetically. “She is just a teeny bit stressed out at the moment.” He turned to Cassie and drew himself up a little bit straighter. “Now, Miss Calderon-Boot, is there anything else that I can do to be of service now that this issue has hopefully been resolved to your satisfaction?”

Cassie glared at Teddy as well as at her brother, although Teddy couldn’t see how Ben had anything to do with any of this.

“No, Kyle.” she grumbled. “I think that everything should be good now.”

“It’s Kevin by the way. Not Kyle. Easy mistake to make. Most everybody does it. If you ever need anything at all just swing by the Hufflepuff common room and...”

“Thank you, Kevin.” Cassie hissed. “Now if you’ll excuse me I am going to go try and find a compartment that is not full of eleven year olds.”

“Well, some friends of mine and I are right back…”

“Or people that enable eleven year olds.”

Cassie gave the Head Boy such a ferocious glare that his perpetual smile flickered for a split second, before she turned and stormed out of the compartment.

“Better luck next time.” Ben laughed. “She really is a sweetheart once you get to know her.”

“Right. Good to know. She was at Ilvermorny right? Which house was she in?”

“Pukwudgie. Yeah, I know. She doesn’t exactly seem the type.”

“Gotcha. Okay, Pukwudgie is basically the American equivalent of Hufflepuff. There is hope yet.”

Kevin turned to leave only to see the first year girl that Teddy had run into earlier glaring at him while angrily tapping her foot on the ground.

“Ah, Violet. That’s right, I almost forgot about you.”

“Oh take your time.” Violet huffed. “I just figured you should be aware of the complete security nightmare this train is. There is not a single wizard who is over the age of eighteen on this train except for the trolley witch, there is a couple in the hallway who have been snogging for the last twenty minutes and it is becoming increasingly graphic, and I passed no less than three duels on my way down the carriage.”

“Okay,” said Kevin. “In my defense the trolley witch is more than capable of looking after...wait, why am I justifying myself to a first year? Go find your little friends and play a game of exploding snap or something.”

“Speaking of exploding snap, that reminds me. What fire safety measures are in place on this train?”

Kevin slapped his palm to his head and muttered angrily to himself about women for a minute before ignoring Violet completely and turning to the two boys.

“All right,” he said, far more waspishly than he had before. “No more wrestling with Slytherins.”

“Well actually,” began Violet. “If you are talking about Callum Nott he hasn’t been sorted yet. Although my auntie says that his whole family have been snakes since Merlin’s day so…”

Kevin looked as if he were seriously debating the ethics of casting a silencing charm on a first year for several seconds.

“Enough!” he finally shouted. “No more squabbling. No more fighting. No more smart-alec comments or, so help me, I will show you exactly why my patronus is a honey badger.”

For the third time in as many minutes a very frustrated teenager stormed out of the compartment in a huff.

Violet turned to Teddy.

“Your hair is pink by the way.” she said brightly. “I would really work on controlling that metamorphmagus stuff if I were you. The Slytherins already have enough to go after you about what with your father’s condition without bringing your hair into it. Besides it would be a really useful tool to keep as a surprise if you really need to get them for something. When you are playing cards with a cheat it always pays to have an Ace or two up your sleeve. Next time you pick a fight with them, do try and be more subtle about it. Four on one, really?”

Violet flounced out of the room leaving the two stunned boys in her wake.

“Teddy,” Ben began. “What on Earth is a metamorphmagus?”

He turned and did a double take take as he caught the tail end of Teddy shifting his hair from pink back to a more natural tone.

“Whoa! You can change your hair color! That is awesome!”

Teddy smirked.

“Oh, I can do a bit more than that. Look, promise you won’t tell the other kids I can do this alright?”

Ben pantomimed placing a silencing charm on himself and Teddy proceeded to shift his face and body so that it was a perfect duplicate of the American boy. Ben promptly fell to the floor in hysterics.

“That…” he managed to gasp out. “...is the best thing ever. Oh, the potential. Tedster. You and I are going to have a blast with this.”

Ben paused.

“Wait,” he said. “Do the professors know that you can do that?”

Teddy had to think about it for a minute. “I think some of them do.” he finally admitted. “The Headmistress and Professor Weasley certainly do, and I would place good money on Professors Longbottom, Hagrid, and Flitwick remembering. I don’t know about the others.”

“Do any of the other students know?”

“Other than you and that Violet girl? No.”

“The Head Boy and Girl probably do. They were both around when Professor McGonagall met with my dad about some of the...custody issues... Cassie and I have been dealing with in regards to our Mom, and if they were in the room for THAT conversation then I am sure that McGonagall told them about a first year who can effing shapeshift.”

Teddy and Ben spent the rest of the afternoon in each other's company. Throughout the day a few other people poked their heads in from time to time to exchange brief pleasantries before disappearing again. After the fourth and fifth person did this (a very frail looking first year with dark hair named Alfred Cattermole and another rather tall first year boy whose blonde curls proclaimed him as being Kevin’s little brother Josh before he even opened his mouth) Teddy reluctantly admitted to Ben that his family was not entirely unknown among the wider wizarding community and that his parents had both passed away at the end of the Second Wizarding War.

Teddy couldn’t help but be a bit relieved at the fact that Ben got more excited about the fact that he could shapeshift than the fact that his godfather was the wizarding equivalent of one of Ben’s comic book heroes. He did feel a bit guilty about the fact that he brushed over his father’s lycanthropy without really mentioning it, but he didn’t want to see the look on Ben’s face when he found out that his new friend had werewolf blood flowing through his veins.

Finally the sun began to slink below the horizon and a low fog rolled over the landscape. One of the prefects, a very loud seventh year Gryffindor named Hercules Rook, stuck his head in to let the other boys know that they were about ten minutes out from Hogsmeade station and that they should probably get their school robes on. Teddy and Ben finally managed, after much giggling and roughhousing, to pull on their school robes just as the train pulled up at the station.

Bellerophon was most displeased about the possibility of being left in his cage while Teddy took the boats to the castle, so Teddy had to quickly stop to open the door to the cage at which point he whacked Teddy about the head with his huge wings and took off in the direction that Teddy knew the castle lay.

Hagrid quickly loomed out of the mist calling for the first years and Teddy had to quickly tug Ben along with him as he was staring at the school carriages that were carrying the older students up to the castle with a curious look on his face.

“Teddy,” he asked. “What are those things pulling the carriages?”

Teddy looked at his friend in confusion. “I think they’re called Thestrals. I’ve never been able to see them though.”

“Why not?” said Ben gesturing toward the carriages. “They’re right there, plain as day. They’re kinda weird looking.”

Teddy stretched his mind a bit and seemed to recall that there was some sort of legend about what types of people could see Thestrals, but he couldn’t remember what it was. He knew his Uncle Harry could see them, but Uncle Harry was special in a lot of ways so that didn’t mean terribly much. He made a mental note to ask him what types of people could see Thestrals in a letter some time soon. Teddy felt that it was important somehow, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember why.

Teddy and Ben scrambled onto a boat with Hagrid (neither wanted to be stuck in a boat with Callum Nott or Jasper Pyrites) and Teddy introduced the half-giant who Ben was suitably in awe of. Teddy leaned back and smiled as Hagrid regaled Ben with a tale of the time he tried to breed a Manticore with a Firecrab and the explosive results. Teddy suspected the tale wasn’t completely first year suitable and he noticed that Hagrid was awkwardly brushing over parts of the story, but he wasn’t bothered. 

The day hadn’t started out very well at all, but it was getting better by the second. He had a friend (one was all that Teddy dared count on or ask for). He was about to be sorted (he kept his fingers crossed that he and Ben both ended up in the same house; most likely Hufflepuff, Teddy thought). As long as he stayed far away from the dungeons there was probably nothing that Jasper or Callum could do to him (he had been in a fight and hadn’t been punished for it! Even Uncle Harry hadn’t been able to get away with that!). Life was good.

There was a splash and a considerable amount of yelling from somewhere in the boats behind him, but before Teddy could turn around to see if anyone had fallen overboard Hogwarts castle loomed out of the fog and everyone gasped. Teddy had seen pictures before of course, but these were nothing compared to the real thing. Even Ben had stopped chattering to Hagrid and was staring up in awe.

“Is Ilvermorny anything like this?” Teddy asked with a smirk.

“No,” Ben replied quietly. “No, it is not.”

There was another yell from the boats behind them and a loud thud as whoever had fallen overboard pulled themselves back into their boat yelling about being attacked by kelpies. Teddy’s smirk got even bigger when he realized that the unfortunate first year was Callum Nott. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.

The boats pulled into the cave beneath the castle and Teddy noticed the tiny form of Professor Flitwick standing in wait for them. 

“Greetings students,” Flitwick chirped as the first year disembarked. “Welcome to Hogwarts. In a minute you will enter the great hall to be sorted into your houses. They will be your family here at Hogwarts in a way. Your triumphs will bring them glory and they will strive to help you rise above your failures. Now without further ado let's get…”

Flitwick was interrupted as with a shrill cackle a spectral figure blasted out of the wall and swooped over the screaming first years. The small dark haired girl standing next to Violet burst into tears in fright and Jasper Pyrites laughed at her.

“Peeves,” barked Flitwick, suddenly stern. “You know better. You must not interrupt the ceremony.”

Peeves blew a loud raspberry in Flitwick’s face. “Watcha gonna do, Professor Man? Expel me? They tried that before, and it didn’t take. Ol’ Peevsie is too clever for them.”

Flitwick quickly pulled out his wand and conjured a miniature tornado which proceeded to chase the cursing Peeves down the hallway.

Flitwick tucked his wand away and Teddy noticed that he winced slightly as if he had overextended himself. It struck him then just how old the tiny professor must be. Teddy’s grandmother had told him stories about him from when she was in school and if he was a teacher back then he must be really getting on in years now.

The first years followed Flitwick to the Great Hall quietly chatting to each other in a nervous manner only to find their way barred by yet another ghost, this one an insanely overweight one in Victorian garb, at the entrance.

“Oh, for the love of Merlin.” Flitwick squeaked. “Now what?”

The ghost crossed his arms and shook his head crossly.

“The House Elves are being disrespectful. They wouldn’t let me stay in the kitchen and smell the smells. Said I was getting in the way. If I don’t get my smells, then no one else gets to dinner.”

“Mr. Grubb...do you honestly think you can do anything to stop us.”

Flitwick calmly walked directly through the ghost who scrunched up his face as if he was constipated and tried to block him. A single wisp of hair on Flitwick’s head twitched, but that was all that happened.

“Come along children.” Flitwick called over his shoulder. “Edmund Grubb is not a poltergeist like Peeves is. He can’t harm you.”

The rest of the first years stared warily at the ghost for a few seconds before the nervous girl who Peeves had reduced to tears a few minutes ago slunk forward and pushed directly through the ghost who howled in fury. The rest of the first years quickly followed once they realized that there was nothing the ghost could really do to them. Then they were in the Great Hall and it was BIG, and it was LOUD. There was also a small stool at the front of the room on which a tattered hat sat.

Teddy glance up at the staff table and Professors Weasley and Longbottom both gave him a wave.

They were barely in the hall when the doors slammed shut and the candle light suddenly dimmed drastically. The first years and some of the younger students were suitably impressed, but Teddy couldn’t help but notice that the professors and a few of the older students suddenly began to look a bit nervous. He got the distinct feeling that however the sorting ceremony usually went it was usually far less theatrical. Then the hat opened what seemed to be its mouth and it began to sing a song in a positively eerie tone.

“For many years I’ve watched  
And kept vigil o’er this school.  
I’ve sorted brave from clever  
And kept kind apart from cruel.

For now the sun is high  
And the night is far from thought.  
But darkness stays not locked away  
To remember this you all ought.

Now all must stand together,  
Brave, Witty, Loyal, and Cunning,  
For our foes grow more united  
And the light will not send them running.

‘What Gryffindor beside Slytherin?’  
You may laugh and jeer.  
But once not so long ago  
We were not so split by fear.

For just as he was brave  
Godric was also loyal  
And when enemies attacked the four  
Salazar their schemes did foil.

Oh, many laughed at Helga  
And thought her a useless hack  
But anyone who threatened her friends  
Soon found a dagger in their back.

And Rowena was seen not a threat by many  
As she worked among her books  
But anyone who crossed her wand   
Would soon learn to not judge by looks

For in every Lion lies a little Serpent  
And every Badger has a Claw or two.  
Now as I separate you remember this  
Lest all fall when the fifth claims his due.”

The Hat fell silent and the lights resumed their usual brightness level as everyone sat stunned in their seats.

“Uh, Teddy,” inquired Ben with a hushed whisper. “Does the Hat usually do that?”

“No. No it does not.” replied Teddy. “They usually put the yearly song in the Daily Prophet, sort of a human interest piece, and I am fairly sure there hasn’t been one quite that ominous since before I was born.”

Professor Flitwick after a glance at the Headmistress, who was looking more stunned than Teddy had ever seen her, cleared his throat and pulled out a scroll with a list of names.

“Right, well then. Bishop, Owen. Please step forward.”

The first terrified looking boy put the hat on his head for about ten seconds before the hat loudly proclaimed him a…

“RAVENCLAW”

A loud cheering rose up from the appropriate table as Owen took off the hat with a sigh of relief and walked down to his new house.

“Calderon-Boot, Benjamin”

With a nervous smile at Teddy, Ben walked up to the hat. The hat sat on his head for about thirty seconds this time.

“GRYFFINDOR”

An even louder cheer broke out at this point and Ben quickly mouthed “good luck” to Teddy before leaving to join the other Gryffindors.

“Cattermole, Alfred”

“GRYFFINDOR”

“Copperfield, Joshua”

“GRYFFINDOR”

“That’s three in a row now.” said a slightly chubby boy who was now standing next to Teddy. “That hardly seems fair.”

“Cracknell, Elaine”

“RAVENCLAW”

“Davies, Isolde”

“RAVENCLAW”

“Diggory, Aurora”

“HUFFLEPUFF”

“Doyle, Nicholas”

“SLYTHERIN”

“Eckley, Claire”

“GRYFFINDOR”

“Everard, Fiona”

“GRYFFINDOR”

“Fielding, Juliet”

Violet gave the still tear stained girl a pat on the back as she went up to the hat.

“GRYFFINDOR”

Juliet let out a frightened squeak at this. That was the second streak of three Gryffindors in a row, but the other houses’ patience was not to be tested as the next several students went to the other three houses.

“Flint, Eliza”

“SLYTHERIN”

“ Fubster, Elliot” 

The chubby boy who had been next to Teddy went up.

“ HUFFLEPUFF”

“Grey, Fenton” 

“SLYTHERIN”

At this point Teddy zoned out a bit as several more names were called. He had a vague impression that there hadn’t been a Gryffindor shouted out in a while so the students gradually stopped muttering. His name was fast approaching and then it was upon him.

“Lupin, Edward”

Maybe it was his imagination, but the whispering seemed to start up again as Teddy went up to the stool on which the hat was perched. He shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. They were probably just interested because he was Harry’s godson. There couldn’t possibly be any other reason. He wished that he could believe that. Then he was seated on the stool and the hat was on his head.

“Huh,” thought the Hat. “Alright then. You don’t see one of your kind every year, so this should be interesting.”

“What?” said Teddy under his breath in a voice that was too soft to even be considered a whisper. “Haven’t met any other half-werewolves lately?”

The Hat actually laughed at this.

“Oh, my boy. You have absolutely no idea. But, to be fair I was referring to your particular talent for impersonation. Werewolves are a dime a dozen compared to that.”

The Hat fell into a long silence after that and Teddy only heard fragments as it seemed to mutter to itself.

“Clever enough I suppose....a fair amount of courage as well…”

Teddy made a disbelieving sound in his throat at that last one. He had resigned himself to being in Hufflepuff, not that there was anything wrong with that of course, and it seemed cruel for the hat to taunt him with Gryffindor like that.

“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself. Yes, you have courage and plenty of it. You know, I once had almost this exact conversation with...but, I will stop there. It seems only right that I keep these conversations in confidence. But let's continue here. Hufflepuff would suit you fine as well I guess. You do have a strong sense of loyalty to those handful you let gain your trust. Then there is Slytherin.”

NotSlytherinNotSlytherinNotSlytherinNotSlytherinNotSlytherin.

The Hat laughed again.

“Fair enough. Although for the record, the house is not nearly the same as it was in your godfather’s day. Well, if you had a choice in the matter, where would you like to go?”

Teddy thought about it. Hufflepuff would be simple. He would be happy there. Content. Probably have no excitement at all and not have to worry about constantly getting in detention or eaten by creatures in the forbidden forest. But, then Teddy thought of his father and his godfather. What if...Teddy almost didn’t dare to hope. He shut his eyes tight and thought a single word.

“So be it. For the record I think you will do absolutely magnificently in GRYFFINDOR!”

The Great Hall suddenly exploded with noise again and Teddy, still stunned and somewhat disbelieving at what his ears had just heard the Hat say, stumbled over to the table and collapsed into a seat next to Ben and an older boy who Teddy vaguely recognized as Hercules Rook, the prefect who had stuck his head in their compartment on the train. 

“Excellent,” cried Hercules triumphantly. “Well done. The tradition continues. Gryffindor always does get the most interesting people. It has me after all!” He clapped his hand on Teddy’s shoulder boisterously. “We have the son of a war hero here folks!”

Teddy squirmed uncomfortably. He didn’t want to judge people too quickly but it seemed like Hercules was just a little bit full of himself.

There was another cheer from the table of Gryffindors as Violet McKInnon joined them.

“That’s two in a row again.” said Ben. “A Galleon says it's three in a row for the third time?”

Teddy shook his head and pointed to the first year who had just walked up to put on the hat. Ben looked where he was pointing and raised his eyebrows.

“On second thought, scratch that. You were up there for an awful long time though. You were almost a...what did they call it?”

Ben turned to ask Alfred Cattermole, who was sitting on his other side, but the boy merely stared at him with wide eyes.

“A Hatstall,” said Violet McKInnon from down the table. “That’s what they call it when the hat takes more than five minutes to decide which house to put someone in. It’s happened exactly twice in living memory according to my auntie. For the record it only took about two minutes to decide for you. That is nowhere near Hatstall territory.”

Teddy nodded and turned to explain to Ben a bit about what Gryffindor tower was supposed to be like. He had heard enough stories from the Weasleys to be able to picture it, even though he had never truly dared to believe he would be living in it.

After a while Teddy noticed that people had started whispering again and were looking at the Sorting Hat. Even the professors were paying closer attention than usual and seemed to be on the edge of their seats.

“What’s going on?” asked Teddy. “Is the Hat trying to make another prophecy again?”

Violet shushed him.

“It’s been four minutes thirty seconds. We’re almost there.”

Teddy then noticed that he had in fact not heard the Hat shout out the name of a house in quite a bit. He looked up to the front of the Hall and noted, with a great deal of surprise, that the Hat still rested on the student who had come up after Violet. The boy seemed to be arguing with the Hat. Teddy squinted a bit...the boy looked an awful lot like...but, that was impossible. The Hat would have sent him to Slytherin the second it rested on its head. Even Teddy could see that and he wasn't the one able to read minds.

Violet let out a loud breath.

“Five minutes.”

The hall fell dead silent. They were officially in Hatstall territory. Then the Hat shouted three fateful syllables into the night, and Callum Nott fell to the floor in a dead faint.

“GRYFFINDOR!”


	4. The Ministry's Most Malevolent

Chapter 4: The Ministry’s Most Malevolent

Harry Potter nervously tried to flatten his hair as he looked around the still empty conference room. The meeting was due to start in about five minutes, but Harry had arrived early just in case something had delayed him on his way into the office. It wouldn’t do for the Head Auror to show up late to the first major case briefing that had come across the Auror department’s desk since he had taken over.

The door opened and the first few Aurors began to file into the room. Among them were Padma Goldstein, with her arms full of files and notebooks on a variety of topics, and Seamus Finnigan, who had nothing with him aside from his wand and gave Harry a small wink before he collapsed into one of the conference room chairs and put his feet up on the table. Padma glared at him and pushed his feet off the table so that there would be more room for her files. The last two men to enter the room were Dawlish, who slouched into the room with a scowl, and a man in his early twenties whose slightly wavy blonde hair and wide smile gave him the appearance of an old-fashioned movie star.

“Ah, Mark.” Seamus called. “Back so soon from the honeymoon? The office had a wager going that you wouldn’t be leaving bed for at least a month.”

Mark Evans waved off Seamus’ suggestive remarks with a good-natured grin as several other of the Aurors laughed and wolf-whistled at him.

“As I recall you only took a week off when you and Lavender tied the knot. A lesser man might draw some conclusions from that.”

“Yeah, well Lavender isn’t part veela.”

Harry made a motion to call the meeting to order before they could get further off track with their teasing of one of their youngest Auror’s recent marriage to Gabrielle Delacour. Mark gave Harry a brief smile and Harry nodded back at him, but they didn’t say anything to each other. In the case of Mark, Harry had to take extra precautions to make sure that he could not be accused of playing favorites seeing as it was a somewhat open secret that the muggleborn wizard was actually a second cousin of Harry’s on his mother’s side of the family, as well as being one of the very few people who Harry still regularly associated with who was familiar with the uglier side of his upbringing at the hands of the Dursleys. 

Mark had lived a block away from Harry’s childhood home on Privet Drive and, after Harry had ceased to be an easy target, had been a frequent target of bullying at the hands of Harry’s cousin Dudley despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that Mark’s father was actually an estranged cousin of Dudley’s mother, Harry’s Aunt Petunia (something Harry was unaware of at the time). This torment had thankfully ended the week before Mark had started his first year at Hogwarts as Dudley and his gang had attempted to rough Mark up again and Dudley had stumbled across Mark’s freshly purchased wand. As it happened, Mark had been in possession of his wand for less than twenty-four hours at the time and probably couldn’t have even caused it to shoot sparks. However, Dudley did not know this and the discovery that a second of his most frequent bullying victims had developed the ability to reign down supernatural vengeance on his rather large posterior had, when combined with his experience with a rogue dementor the previous summer, been enough to finally put the fear of God in him.

Even still it had been a shock for both of them when Harry and Mark had run into each other in the Gryffindor common room on the evening of the welcoming feast at the start of Harry’s sixth year. Mark had believed that Harry was a dangerous juvenile delinquent who was only one small step away from turning into Jack the Ripper (courtesy of the various rumors spread by the Dursleys to cover up his absence for much of the year), and Harry was not entirely happy about having a housemate who could, if he wanted, tell the whole school of all the indignities that the Chosen One had gone through at the hands of an overweight Muggle and his gang when Harry had been younger. The two boys had struck an uneasy agreement to stay out of each other’s way that evening and had not spoken again at any length until after the defeat of Voldemort. 

As it happened Mark’s parents had been killed during the war when Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, with the ink on their dark marks still fresh, arrived at the Evans’ house one August night searching for the Dursleys, having either not heard of or not cared about the estrangement. It was this incident that finally caused Mark to realize that he and Harry were related. After the war Mark had reintroduced himself and the two had become close with Harry taking on a sort of older brotherly approach toward the younger wizard whose suddenly parentless existence was an all too familiar situation for Harry.

Harry shook his head to clear his mind of the recollections that had just been filling it and pointed his wand at the door to the conference room. The door eased shut and Harry murmured a few more incantations to make sure that all of the privacy charms were in place. Even in the heart of the Ministry there were people who would love to know exactly what the Auror department’s agenda was, whether for criminal purposes or for gossip. Harry in particular had a “swat on sight” order made very clear to all of his Aurors when it came to any beetles seen near his briefings and had had several dozen bug zappers placed in prominent places throughout the department. A few years back Rita Skeeter had leaked a briefing by way of her morning gossip column that allowed Elias Jugson and Augustus Rookwood to disappear into thin air minutes before the Aurors raided their hideout, and Harry was in no mood for a repeat of the embarrassing incident, especially as Rita had managed to skate out of criminal charges for the incident by discretely blackmailing a few key members of the Wizengamot. The incident had been quite the scandal and Rita had covered every second of it with far too much glee and not an ounce of shame.

“All right,” Harry said as he clapped his hands together. “Let’s get started. As you are doubtless aware we had a bit of an incident on Saturday at Diagon Alley. It may have been just a case of muggle baiting, but it may be something more sinister. Regardless, I personally witnessed the attempted use of at least one Unforgivable on a bystander when I attempted to confront the man, so it definitely falls under our jurisdiction. You have all read the incident briefings. What are your thoughts?”

Padma tapped her quill against her chin thoughtfully.

“I think Occam’s Razor might apply here. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Is there any evidence that this wasn’t just some random member of one of the seedier Sacred Twenty-Eight who decided to put what he considered to be a, pardon my French, ‘Muggle Bitch’ in her place, as they like to say, and panicked when he saw Harry Potter turn the corner?”

“It is possible.” Harry granted. “My wife claims that I do sometimes have that effect on people.”

There was a light chuckling from pretty much every Auror in the room aside from Dawlish. Mark raised his hand to call for Harry’s attention and Harry nodded to him.

“I think the fact that the attacker was using this new face-masking spell speaks to a certain level of premeditation, don’t you think? Also, I haven’t heard of anyone brazen or persistent enough to try and attack a Muggle in broad daylight in quite a while. I hate to bring this up Harry, but there is also the personal factor to consider. From what I read in the report that Killing Curse wasn’t aimed at you.”

“No,” Harry granted. “I have some reason to believe the curse was aimed at my godson. Thankfully it missed. There is also the fact that that muggle girl was a neighbor of Teddy’s as well. It could just be the mother of all coincidences, but that is one of the big reasons I wanted your guys’ opinions on the matter.”

“So,” Proudfoot, a fairly taciturn auror with a dark complexion, began. “Let’s look at the theories. Option one; a rogue pureblood feeling nostalgic about the good old days.”

“Option two,” Seamus chimed in. “Death Eater seeking vengeance.”

Mark rolled his eyes.

“Way to call out the Chimera in the corner, Seamus.” He said. “Option three; someone could be trying to make some sort of political statement about wizard-muggle relations. You know, someone trying to deliberately break the Statute in a big way.”

Several of the Aurors in the room shifted uncomfortably and Padma cast a particularly ferocious glare towards Mark. Seamus groaned and hit his head on the table.

“Here we go again.” The Irishman muttered. Harry began to get the feeling that he had once again stumbled into the middle of an argument missing a key piece of information and vowed to pay more attention to Hermione’s political pontifications in the future.

“And why,” hissed Padma. “Would any member of The New Dawn, I assume that is who you were referring to, fire an Unforgivable at a child?”

Mark shrugged his shoulders.

“Teddy is a wizard.” He began. “Barnaby Thatch’s rhetoric has been getting much more militant and anti-wizard lately. I have seen this sort of thing before in the Muggle world. The line between social activist and madman can get fuzzy when people feel they are being ignored or persecuted. If you want magical examples, look at what the Children of Rasputin stirred up in Russia a few years back. Hell, look at Grindelwald.”

“What type of political statement would require the death of an innocent eleven year- old child?”

“That is the weakness in the case.” Mark granted.

“Maybe,” said Dawlish quietly. “Someone doesn’t see the boy as being quite so innocent. Everyone knows what the boy’s father was. Everyone knows who his godfather is. I have spoken to you about this already, Potter, and this morning’s paper just confirms it. The boy’s presence causes situations to escalate just by him being who he is.”

Harry was momentarily at a loss. He hadn’t had a chance to read the paper before coming in this morning and from what Dawlish was saying he had a bad feeling that Rita Skeeter may have taken some sort of vengeance for his jokes about bug zappers.

It was Seamus, of all people, who noticed that the situation was starting to get out of hand.

“Right,” he said cheerily. “I know we all have a lot to think about. Harry, I assume you want us to, as the Muggles say, ‘round up the usual suspects’ and keep our ears to the ground?”

Harry nodded gratefully and thanked Merlin’s ghost that his former roommate was still able to read him so well.

“That sounds about right,” he said. “Proudfoot, I would like you to talk to some of the guards at Azkaban just in case they might have heard some chatter. Padma, could you come with me to check with Terry down in Mysteries about that masking spell? Maybe he might know something.”

“Another one of your cronies,” Dawlish grumbled as he left the room.

The Aurors filed out of the room to get back to work with the exception of Seamus who hovered near the door as discreetly as he could.

“So,” He said as Harry left the room. “Is this a ‘leave it to the Aurors’ situation or is it an ‘all hands on deck’ situation?”

Harry sighed. “Try to discreetly round up Padma and Mark and meet me in my office in about ten minutes. I want to bounce a few ideas off of you guys unofficially. I also need to figure out exactly why Padma and Mark are going at it like Kneazels that just smelled an animagus.”

“ Not a problem boss.”

Harry slipped across the hall and quietly tapped his wand against his office door and murmured the week’s password (“Norwegian Ridgeback”). There was a click and the door eased open. Harry left the door open behind him as he settled behind his desk seeing as he was expecting company in a few minutes. He gazed over at the single picture frame on his desk. He only had a single picture frame, but as he watched the picture in it changed from Ginny in her former Holyhead Harpies uniform to James, Albus, and Lily messing around underneath a Christmas tree. As Seamus, Padma, and Mark entered the room the picture changed again to show a much younger Harry sitting in the Gryffindor common room alongside Ron and Hermione.

Harry turned to the other three aurors. When he was at Hogwarts he had always had Ron and Hermione to bounce ideas off of whenever the yearly crisis had reared its ugly head and Harry had kept up similar habits in his role as an auror. When he had first started out in the department he had always had Ron, and quite often Neville as well, to bounce ideas off of, but they had both left for slightly less dangerous jobs (although Harry had enough experience with George’s joke products and Neville’s fascination with large, carnivorous plants to wonder about this particular justification) once they had started their respective families and a particularly nasty case had resulted in several Aurors’ loved ones being put in the line of fire. Now he had Mark, Padma, and Seamus, the only other official members of the department that he knew from his time at Hogwarts, even if he didn’t really get to know Mark and Padma that well until after the war.

“All right,” Harry began. “Ideas? We might as well start with the big ones first. Seamus, remind us how many Death Eaters we still have running around at the moment and if this sort of thing is something they would do.”

“Well,” Seamus began as he gestured towards a series of wanted posters on the opposite wall. “ We still have the Sinister Seven running around somewhere. The Ministry’s Most Malevolent, as the press is so fond of referring to them.”

“Is that counting people like Greyback and Umbridge?” Mark enquired.

“No,” Seamus replied. “Greyback is an entirely different category. The bastard wasn’t technically a Death Eater, even during the war, and our current intelligence suggests he hasn’t exactly been running with the same crowd as the former Death Eaters have been. Besides, this sort of thing is too subtle for him and doesn’t fit the profile. He would have shown up with his pack and started ripping people apart right up and down the alley. The profile issue also goes for the usual slightly shady people like Ulysses Pike, Iago Pyrites, or Hera Zabini. Firing killing curses in a crowded street is not nearly subtle enough for them. No plausible deniability. I think the Death Eater remnants fit the profile better.”

“I guess Umbridge might fit the profile as well,” Padma mused. “This does have certain similarities to that incident in Little Whinging back in ‘95 with the dementors that Harry told us about, but I don’t think it is her. We know exactly where she is and what she is doing, unlike the Death Eaters, but we just can’t do anything about it without causing a diplomatic incident. There is also the fact that she is, you know, a woman. Or at least seems to be a woman. As I recall, that was a matter of some question among the DA gossip circuit back in the day.”

“The DA gossip circuit?” inquired Seamus.

“My sister and your wife,” said Padma, waving her hands dismissively. “The theory was that she was some sort of hermaphroditic troll. Possibly some sort of ancestor of Goyle’s.”

“You know,” Mark said thoughtfully. “Michael Corner has offered to take care of the Umbridge situation for us. It would certainly solve a lot of problems. He thinks people will probably still buy the ‘grieving widower on a rampage’ act even if it is traced back to him, which as we all know, would be pretty unlikely. He is pretty good at the James Bond routine.”

“Oh no,” began Padma. “No,no,no. We are not planning any more assassinations. The Chinese still have a Death Bounty out for whoever killed Princess Jiang Shi even if we did do that on direct orders from Kingsley and even if everyone knows she was an ascendant Dark Lord now. We are Aurors for Merlin’s sake. We swore to uphold the law.”

“We also swore to uphold justice.” Mark replied. “We have exhausted all legal routes when it comes to The Toad. She is quite literally serving as a rallying point for all of the old Death Eater collaborators.”

“Kingsley is working on it.”

“Kingsley has been working on extraditing Umbridge for the past ten years with nothing to show for it. MACUSA isn’t budging.”

Harry raised his hands to quiet the other two. “Enough, we are not talking about the Umbridge situation right now unless either of you think she was in Diagon Alley two days ago. Does anyone have any thoughts as to which Death Eaters it might be?”

Padma began to tick off the names of the fugitive Death Eaters on her fingers as she listed them. “I don’t think it would be Goyle or Macnair. They would have followed the Greyback school of thought and would have just gone in wands ablaze without bothering with stalking muggles or disguising themselves. That leaves us with Dolohov, Rookwood, Jugson, and the Lestrange Brothers. Frankly, I am leaning towards Dolohov. Rookwood rarely works alone and it is even more rare for him to do the dirty work himself. The man still half thinks of himself as some sort of high-minded intellectual who is mostly above getting his hands bloody. Jugson would have been craftier about it. The man is still an enigma and as far as we can tell he has been around since Riddle was a Hogwarts prefect. You don’t survive as a terrorist for over half a century without some discretion and self-control. This was a bit too theatrical and, from what you said, the attacker sort of went nuts when everything started to go tits up. The Lestrange Brothers tend to have more of a flair for the dramatic, but they always work together and if it was them...well, to be honest, if it was them a lot of people would probably be dead right now. That didn’t happen, so that makes me lean towards Dolohov if, in fact, it is a former Death Eater. He is also notoriously touchy about all those curse scars on his face from the battle, so I can see him using that no-face spell and he might be after Teddy out of some warped idea of tying up loose ends after killing Remus. There is precedent for him going after the families of his victims, as we well know. There is also the fact that Lucius Malfoy is completing his sentence in Azkaban in a little bit less than four months. Maybe they are planning to mark the occasion somehow and this is part of it.”

“Okay,” Harry said thoughtfully. “I will make inquiries with my source to see if there are any hints of them getting organized again.”

“You still have a source among the radical pureblood families?” Mark asked, raising an eyebrow. “I would have thought that what happened with Tracey two years ago would have given them the spook. Seeing the Daily Prophet printing the image of your housemate’s severed head sitting on the Minister of Magic’s desk like some sort of macabre paperweight tends to discourage informants.”

“They don’t like me involving them, but yes I do still have a source that I can use in a pinch. We also don’t know that it was the Death Eaters who killed Tracey. It could very well have been Pike’s people and there is also some evidence it could have been that voodoo lord who keeps giving the ICW all that trouble down in the Congo or even what is left of the Children of Rasputin for that matter. Hermione actually thinks that it might have been a few of the goblins who were still giving us trouble after Griphook’s Rebellion was put down, but I am not sure I agree with her.”

“The only person who thinks that it was Pike who had Tracey killed is Michael,” grumbled Padma. “And he is more than a little bit emotionally compromised on the issue.”

Harry gritted his teeth. It was time to seize the nundu by the tail. “All right,” he began. “What is going on with Barnaby Thatch? There is clearly something happening that I don’t know about yet, and that worries me.”

Padma glared at Mark. “Well,” she said. “He is what some people are calling an advocate for sentient rights. Kind of like Hermione is.”

“Yeah, except I trust Hermione not to try and put an Acromantula or a Manticore on the Wizengamot just because they can talk.” Mark scoffed. “I am not so sure about Thatch.” 

“Wait,” Seamus interrupted. “Acromantula can talk?”

“Yes,” said Harry with a shudder. “Ask Ron about Aragog sometime when we go to the Leaky for drinks.”

“How is that even possible? They are giant insects and are not designed to have vocal cords.”

“Magic shit.” said Mark, wiggling his fingers in what he clearly thought was a spooky manner.

“We are getting off track here,” redirected Harry. “So Thatch is some sort of activist that has the pureblood advocates all up in arms?”

“It’s a bit more than that,” continued Mark. “His ‘recommendations’ make both S.P.E.W. and The Quibbler’s conspiracies look like some sort of law proposed by Lucius Malfoy in comparison. He claims that wizards have been in control for too long and have been mistreating everybody else too much to be trusted.”

“To be fair, he might have a point there.” granted Seamus.

“Seamus, you know perfectly well that I am the last one to claim that Wizarding Britain is without prejudice. I spent most of my time at Hogwarts being called a ‘mudblood’ and then had to spend a year being chased all over creation by Snatchers, remember? Anyhow, the issue is that he is throwing the baby out with the bathwater a bit, and that is being extremely charitable. He wants to give the goblins complete control over all wizarding businesses, give the centaurs and the merpeople permission to kill on sight anyone who enters their territory uninvited, and wants to ban the production of the Wolfsbane potion as he feels it is a ‘repressive tool of governmental control and propaganda’, to name but a few of his proposals. The rumors are that he has also been meeting with Claudius Trocar’s tribe of vampires as well, which is the last thing wizarding Britain needs to be dealing with right now. Oh, and he says we wasted valuable resources giving all the Death Eaters trials when we caught them and we should have had them Kissed upon capture, and he wants us to repeal the Statute of Secrecy as he feels it is unfair to the ‘magically challenged’ that they cannot challenge their ‘magical oppressors’. The man doesn’t want justice, he wants vengeance against wizardkind and to reshape the wizarding world into his own personal utopia no matter who he has to crush to get it and what basic human rights he has to curtail to keep it once he has gotten it.”

Mark stopped to catch his breath and Harry raised an eyebrow. “Well,” he said. “That does seem a bit excessive.”

Even Padma seemed a bit taken aback. “Where did you hear all this?” she asked. “I have read about The New Dawn in the Prophet, but I hadn’t heard about any of this.”

“Gabi,” said Mark grimly. “The man reduced her to tears a few months back because she dared to ‘renounce her Veela heritage to be a wizard’s whore’. He accused her of being a ‘Dobby’. I did my research on him after that. Yeah, I’ll be the first to admit this issue is a bit personal for me. You should probably take everything I say with a grain of salt, Harry. It’s probably best I’m not put on any cases involving this guy.”

“A Dobby?” asked Harry.

“A non-wizard sentient so infatuated with their wizard oppressors that they are considered a disgrace by their own kind. According to Thatch’s people anyhow.”

There was a long uncomfortable silence at this point before Seamus loudly clapped his hands.

“Well,” he exclaimed. “This has been illuminating for all of us. I am sure we will have this wrapped up in no time. If you will excuse me, I have to finish writing that report on Greyback. I swear, why that seer thought he was in Tibet is beyond me. That sighting was clearly a Yeti with mange and not a werewolf.”

Seamus left at this point still grumbling about the sketchiness of using divination techniques to locate fugitives, and Mark soon followed. Harry decided to join Padma and head down to the Department of Mysteries to see if Terry Boot could shed any light on the spell that the mysterious attacker had used to mask his face. He also wanted to take a look at whatever files the Unspeakables still had on Rookwood, who had been a high ranking Unspeakable before being exposed as a Death Eater. This particular incident was especially embarrassing for the Unspeakables and Harry suspected that they had not been entirely forthcoming about all of Rookwood’s past “personal projects” for the department when Harry had inquired with them in the past. Harry was hoping that Terry might be able to get a hold of the files today before any of the other Unspeakables realized Aurors were visiting and went into what Seamus called “incendio the important papers mode”. 

Sure enough Harry and Padma had barely stepped off the lifts next to the Department of Mysteries before several figures in grey hoods spotted them and, after a quickly whispered conference, scurried back into the depths of the department.

“Great,” Padma muttered. “The lights just came on, and the roaches have scattered. We’ve got about five minutes before Croaker swoops down here to chase us off again. If we’re lucky he’ll think we are headed for the records room rather than Boot’s office.”

Terry Boot’s office was not so much an office as a glorified closet in Harry’s opinion, but its occupant did not seem to mind. Padma opened the small door underneath the main staircase at the entrance to the department and slipped inside with Harry on her heels. As he entered the small room, Harry looked down just in time to stop a pair of white mice from fleeing the room in a bid for freedom. Harry quickly reached down and picked them up before they could properly escape and made sure to close the door behind him as he entered.

Harry had uncomfortable flashbacks to his childhood with the Dursley’s as he looked around the room. Not only was the room only marginally bigger than his former abode in the cupboard under the stairs, but it was also just as cluttered with what Harry could not help but think of as junk, just like his cousin’s spare room. Of course the junk in this room was far more unusual and possibly dangerous than any of Dudley’s broken televisions. Where there should have been walls there were instead rows of bookshelves and filing cabinets. More white mice scampered all over the floor among piles of books, various loose papers, a cauldron that was bubbling ominously as its steam cycled through the colors of the rainbow, a jar containing the pickled remains of a miniature Heliopath, and a set of diagrams that looked suspiciously like blueprints for the Deathly Hallows.

Padma looked around at the mess and clapped a hand to her head with a groan. At the sound a head with a mop of blonde hair and a huge pair of goggles covering its eyes poked up from behind an especially large pile of books before vanishing again. A minute later a cheerful looking man emerged from the mess.

“Harry! Padma!” greeted Terry Boot jovially as he pulled off the goggles. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“How do you live like this Boot?” asked Padma, trying not to step on a pair of the mice which were capering about around her feet. “You know, if you want I can recommend a good exterminator.”

“What? The mice? Oh no, no, no, no. Those are supposed to be there. Well, not there exactly. Rather more of them showed up than I expected. You wouldn’t happen to be able to tell if one of them has a green band on its left front paw would you?”

Harry looked at the mice in his hand and noticed that one of them did indeed have the aforementioned green band in the proper place. He handed the squirming creature to Terry.

“Ah! Excellent! I have been looking for Brisby for ages. He is the prime mouse and got out of his cage in the confusion. Pluribus Unum.” Terry declared, poking the mouse in his hand triumphantly with his wand.

There was a sucking sound and all of the dozens of white mice in the room came flying from wherever they were frolicking and seemed to merge into the mouse which Terry was holding. The sole remaining mouse seemed to be a bit stunned by what had just happened and shook itself unsteadily as Terry gently put it in a small cage atop one of the filing cabinets.

“You know,” Terry whispered conspiratorially. “It is probably for the best that you pretend you didn’t see that spell. It is still very much in the experimental stage.”

Padma looked stunned. “Did you seriously manage to duplicate a living organism?”

“Err. No comment.”

“That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Why not?” Harry interrupted. 

“In first year terms please.” he continued as both Terry and Padma went into overlapping rants and explanations involving Gamp’s Laws and Conservation of Sentience. “It’s not like we haven’t seen animals conjured out of thin air or the effects of a gemino curse before now.”

Padma waved her hand dismissively. “Honestly Harry. Did you pay any attention at all in NEWT Transfiguration?

“I was rather otherwise occupied for half of it.”

“Right. Chosen One nonsense. You can’t duplicate a living organism and have the duplicates all remain the same inherent being. You can transfigure them. You can even sometimes conjure facsimiles of them, although that is trickier and they tend to vanish after a short while, but you can’t duplicate them. It’s kind of like how you can’t conjure food. Otherwise you would hear all sorts of stories about wizards being in two places at once. The only time that can happen is if...oh Slime of Salazar even you, Boot, would have enough sense not to mess around with those broken time turners.”

Terry looked rather uncomfortable. “Do you really want me to answer that? Keep in mind, I may or may not have been placed under a tongue tying jinx with regards to the entire affair.”

“Fine, but so help me if I wake up one morning to find that Gellert Grindelwald is now the Minister of Magic because you were screwing around with the timeline I will be royally pissed.”

“Padma, you know very well that can’t happen. There are no less than four of Goodwyn’s Laws of Time Travel that clearly support the Closed Loop theory of…”

“Oi! Ravenclaws!” Harry interrupted. “As fascinating as this conversation is, there is a reason we are down here right now and we might only have seconds before Croaker comes blasting in here and Terry doesn’t have plausible deniability anymore.”

Padma explained the situation to Terry. She was not even fully finished explaining what they were trying to ask him before Terry proceeded to get very excited and grab the pair of goggles that he had been wearing when the two aurors had arrived.

“Excellent!” he began. “This is the perfect time to test the Legilimency Goggles.”

Harry eyed the goggles nervously. “You haven’t really managed to…”

“Create a magical device that can read minds? Oh no, don’t worry about that. Not very well, at any rate. These things aren’t nearly as effective as even the most amateurish Legilimens. Here…” he began, pushing Harry into a chair after brushing aside the various detritus that had been on top of it and handing Harry what appeared to be a copper headband. “...put this on. If you do that and really, REALLY focus on your memory of our faceless friend then I should be able to see an image of him pop up in the Goggles when I wear them.”

Harry sat down and put on the device that resembled a copper headband. The various runes carved into the side of it made it perfectly clear that it was no normal piece of headgear. Terry put on the goggles again and fiddled with them for about a minute or so muttering to himself.

“All right,” he finally said. “Now focus. A little bit harder. Almost got it. Hah! There we go!”

Terry triumphantly tore off the goggles and shoved them into Harry’s hands. Harry gingerly put them on and sure enough there was a ghostly image of the Faceless Man looming on the streets of Knockturn Alley captured in the goggles. It was a little bit hazier than a pensieve memory would have been, and Harry felt that the surroundings were rather indistinct, but the image was certainly there. Harry showed the captured image to Padma who took a good three minutes of time staring at the image before she felt that she had committed it to memory sufficiently.

“Huh,” she said. “This is a clever little gadget. Should I expect them to be standard issue to the investigative branches soon?”

“Depends on what you mean by soon. This baby is just a prototype. There are still a few bugs in the system magically speaking. Literally in some cases, seeing as I the last time I tweaked the goggles they kept putting at least half a dozen scorpions in all of the thought images they captured that I knew were not there to begin with. It was most annoying. Also, you know how the department is. They don’t like to share their toys. At all.”

“Anyhow,” he continued. “I will certainly give that image a once over and see what I can come up with. Maybe we can visually reverse it somehow so we can remove the disguise. This might be a good time for…”

The door to Terry’s office flew open with a bang and Brisby squeaked irritably in his cage. The pickled Heliopath in the jar, which Harry had up to this very second been convinced was dead, also sprang to life and appeared to hiss angrily at the new intruder. A man in a grey cloak with not a single hair on the top of his head, aside from two large tufts directly above his ears, swept into the small room with a feeling of intense aggravation following in his wake.

“Boot!” Silas Croaker snapped. “I know you aren’t revealing classified information to your old school friends without a warrant.”

“Of course not sir,” Terry replied cheerfully, tucking the pair of goggles into a hidden compartment on his desk. “I wouldn’t dream of participating in any sort of interdepartmental cooperation. I was just discussing with aurors Potter and Goldstein the arrangements for our children for this afternoon. They are having a playdate you see and…”

“Enough,” Croaker hissed casting a ferocious glare at the picture on the desk of Terry standing beside an equally blonde haired woman and their two golden haired children. He clearly could not quite decide whether Terry was being insubordinate or not. “Discuss this stuff on your personal time.”

“Ah, but my lunch break started five minutes ago Mr. Croaker.”

Croaker tried to come up with a response to that for several seconds before letting out an irritated huff and gesturing toward the door to the office. He clearly wasn’t going to let the aurors continue to lurk around the department without his supervision.

“That man really does not like you.” Harry remarked as they entered the lifts up into the main body of the Ministry. Croaker had faded back into the shadowy recesses where his office and secret projects were doubtless hidden.

“You have absolutely no idea.” Terry replied, still as nonplussed as ever. “I know perfectly well that I am never getting out of that office and will probably never see all of the really cool stuff that they keep locked away. Kingsley basically forced him to hire me after the War. It was either hire me and a few other people Kingsley was sure were not Death Eaters, or he said he would cut the Unspeakables budget and demand complete oversight of the department. He did not want another Rookwood.”

“I bet ol’ Silas really enjoyed that.” Padma remarked.

“Oh, it was magnificent. You should have seen the fit he pitched when he found out that not only do I share a house with Anthony and Michael, but I was actually quite happily dating an actual woman that I was fully intending to marry. Apparently the Unspeakables are traditionally celibate, even though they aren’t legally allowed to enforce it, and they usually never, you know, actually speak to anyone outside the department with any regularity. I swear, most of them sleep in their offices. Croaker spent three hours screaming to Kingsley about how much of a security risk Fay was. Personally, I think he just couldn’t stand the fact that I would be getting laid and he wouldn’t. Ah well, such is life.”

“He can’t just fire you?”

“Not easily. Perks of being part of the Union, you know?”

“I know. Believe me, I know.” Harry remarked, thinking of his own difficulties with Dawlish.

Terry stepped off the floor at the level of the cafeteria with Padma while Harry prepared to keep going up to his office. He usually preferred to take his lunch break with a certain amount of privacy.

“So,” Padma called back. “Make sure you tell Anthony to pick up some more floo powder when you see him this afternoon. We’re starting to run low. You’ll see him before I will as I think Ginny is the one hosting all the kids this time as I recall.”

“Wait,” Harry said. “You mean that wasn’t just an excuse Terry pulled out of his hat? The kids are really tearing apart Grimmauld Place right now?”

“Yep.” said Terry. “I guess Ginny must have forgotten to tell you. Anthony is over there dealing with the toddlers right now seeing as he is on supervision duty this week. Not to mention enjoying all the gossip and Quidditch talk from the other adults. You just know it will be driving him up the wall.”

Padma smirked. “He knew what he was signing up for when we decided he would be the stay-at-home parent. Putting up with the mommy gossip was part of the bargain.”

“Are all the kids really at Grimmauld Place right now?”

“I think the Hufflepuff Crew is doing their own thing today, so that means everyone but the Longbottom, Macmillan, and Finch-Fletchley kids. The Scamander’s are out of the country as well.”

Harry left the two Ravenclaws and made his way back to his office. He had just reached the auror department when he noticed a very familiar and not entirely welcome figure standing outside of his office door. Harry sighed. An already long day was shaping up to be even longer.

“Potter.”

“Malfoy. Well, seeing as you're here, you might as well come in.”

Harry whispered the password to enter his office and collapsed in the chair behind his desk. He barely had time to breathe before Draco Malfoy slapped the day’s newspaper down in front of him.

“Potter,” Draco Malfoy drawled in a tone of voice that Harry noticed with surprise was tinted with just the tiniest bit of concern amid the snark. “We need to discuss you keeping a tighter leash on your pet wolf.”

Harry groaned. “Skeeter again? What did she write about Teddy this time?”

Draco nodded and Harry proceeded to flip open the paper to the Vane and Skeeter gossip column. There, in between scandal filled passages about what exactly the Beaters from the Irish National Quidditch team got up to on the weekends, was a picture of two first year boys pummeling each other in a train car. One of them was clearly Teddy, but Harry did not recognize the other boy. A brief examination of the article identified the boy as Callum Nott.

“Well,” Harry said. “This is the first I have heard of this. What concern is Teddy’s school behavior of yours?”

Draco sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily. “I am here to look after my godson, just as you are seeking to look after yours. Whatever is going on between them needs to stop. Callum is going to have a difficult life at the school as it is without starting a blood feud with his classmates and we both know Teddy’s heritage will do him little favors in certain crowds. We nearly killed each other more than once, and we lived on opposite sides of the castle. If we shared a dorm and a class schedule with each other we would both have been dead or expelled before our first Halloween feast.”

“What do you mean about sharing a dorm and a class schedule?” asked Harry. Draco gestured to the article again and Harry continued to read for several lines before finding the information that Draco was doubtless referring to and letting out a guffaw with very little mirth in it. 

“Oh, this is just perfect,” he said. “Theo must be having an entire litter of nundus right about now. A Nott in Gryffindor. Oh, the shame of it, as Kreacher would say. Your mother must be having so many flashbacks to Sirius.”

Draco rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Believe it or not this turn of events is....not entirely unexpected. At least on my part and that of my mother and Astoria anyway, especially when one considers the circumstances. But yes, Theo and Daphne are a bit discombobulated at the moment.”

Harry balled up the newspaper and tossed it into the trash bin where the bin’s charm promptly reduced it to ash. “I’ll drop Teddy a line,” he said. “Although I am sure that their Head of House has spoken to both boys this morning already.”

Draco snorted at the mention of Neville Longbottom, but managed not to say anything against him. That really was all that he could hope for at the moment, Harry reflected.

“Well,” said Draco as he turned to leave. “I think we can both certainly agree on one thing.”

“What is that?” Harry asked.

“Skeeter delenda est. This article is her handiwork.”

“I wonder how she got the news and the photos.” Harry mused. “McGonagall explicitly made sure that the train was warded not to let her on, even in her animagus form.”

“I would suppose one of the other students mailed a pensive memory of the event to her that evening.”

“It probably is something like that. I should probably look into it a bit more though.”

“You do that Potter. You solve the mystery. You go ahead and save the world again. Just leave Callum out of it.”

Draco swept out of the auror department with his cloak billowing behind him in such a way that Harry began to suspect, once again, that Severus Snape has taught his own godson a few tricks about making a dramatic exit before his own more permanent dramatic exit at Voldemort’s hands. Harry leaned back and reflected on the situation. He was no seer, but it didn’t take one to realize that Draco was most likely not going to get his wish. Something told him that the next few years would not be as uneventful for Teddy as he may have hoped and, if Harry’s experiences were anything to go by, those around him would be roped along for the ride as well. Harry was not sure where Callum Nott fit into everything, but he had somehow instinctively known that this was not to be the last time that he heard Callum’s name even if he did write a letter forbidding Teddy to associate with him (something he had no intention of doing as it would just inflame the matter). It was clear that the two boys’ futures were somehow connected by whichever cruel fate ruled over the lives of Harry and his loved ones, although Harry did not yet have enough information to foresee what form that connection would take.

Harry took the time to write to Teddy congratulating him on getting into Gryffindor and putting in the slight warning about getting into fights that he felt obligated to include as Teddy’s godfather, even if he deeply suspected that Teddy was not the one to instigate the fight. He did not mention Callum Nott by name, but his presence loomed large in the letter nonetheless. Harry proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon answering more letters, attending a meeting for the heads of the DMLE, and debriefing Seamus on the Yeti that had apparently been mistaken for Fenrir Greyback by some overenthusiastic seer with poor eyesight and a dusty scrying glass.

At five o’clock that afternoon Harry tucked away the papers that he had been going over and left the Ministry. He proceeded to walk for about a block and half before finding a suitably vacant alleyway that could serve as an apparition point. With a familiar popping sound and a squeezing sensation, which was soon followed by another popping sound of apparition, Harry found himself among the trees in the park across the way from Grimmauld Place. The house was silent as he approached, but once he was on the front step and within the house’s wards the sounds of shouting and laughing children could be heard faintly within.

Harry entered Grimmauld Place and smiled as he saw Kreacher firmly holding the curtains closed around Mrs. Black’s portrait. There were enough small children in the main part of the house that they could never be quiet enough to avoid disturbing the portrait, so Kreacher had taken it upon himself to be productive and try to keep his former mistress as calm as she could be during the hullabaloo. Harry had barely passed through the hall into the living room before there were eager cries of “Daddy! Daddy!” and “Mr. Potter! Mr. Potter” from the various assembled children, all of whom were under the age of six. The wizarding baby boom following the second Blood War had been more than generous to Harry and his family and friends and the results surrounded him with a loud clamor. Aside from his own three children he spotted several of their cousins (Rose, Hugo, Freddie, Roxanne, and Louis Weasley) as well as the children of several other family friends (including Brendan, Patrick, Declan, and Moira Finnigan, Tess and Tristan Boot, Reuben, Miriam, and Aanya Goldstein, Emily and Fiona Creevey, and Ricky Corner). Harry gave his own three children the requisite hugs and slipped into the library where a man with neatly combed dark brown hair and fastidious pressed robes poked at an especially menacing large book with a wand.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t do that Anthony.” Harry began. “Some of the really old and nasty books get a bit temperamental at times.”

“Clearly.” remarked Anthony Goldstein dryly. As if in response to the sound of voices, the book began to make a low chanting sound that caused a dazed expression to appear on Anthony’s face.

“Oh Merlin, not again.” Harry groaned as he pulled his wand. “Silencio. Silencio. Bloody silencio damn it.”

The book let out a clearly furious hiss and fell silent. Anthony shook his head to clear his mind and glared at the book.

“Ten years.” Harry grumbled as he gingerly picked up the offending book and carried it toward the bookcase. “Ten years we have lived in this house and we are still finding Walburga Black’s booby traps. I could have sworn on my wand that I checked these books and they were safe.”

“It’s okay Harry. Maybe it didn’t like being poked. Or touched. The darn thing snapped at me when I tried to open it and I thought it was one of those novelty books. You know, like that one Hagrid assigned? Or the Invisible Book of Invisibility?”

“I am pretty sure the Invisible Book of Invisibility never existed. George thinks that the whole business was one of Mundungus Fletcher’s cons from back in the day. It was the sort of thing he would do.”

Harry rapped a pattern on a painting of Hogwarts castle beside the bookshelf and the painting swung open to reveal a large closet full of shelves of books. Harry cautiously placed the book on the nearest shelf and slammed the painting shut just as a few other of the books began to glow and hiss in a sinister fashion.

Anthony raised an eyebrow. “You keep those things in the house where your children sleep?”

“The secret room is in a heavily warded pocket dimension and only my wand can open it. Besides, most of Walburga’s surprises tend to...take it poorly... if you try to remove them from the house. We learned our lesson after the incident with the scarecrow. It is easier to try and keep them contained in the house. I would destroy the things except that some of the books and such are actually quite useful and, well, the last time we destroyed something…”

“...it released half a dozen poltergeists into the house. I remember Miriam mentioning something about that happening the last time she was here. She found it hysterically funny of course, as five year olds are wont to do.”

“Pretty much. The only reason we still live in the house is because of the fact that it is somehow linked to the Black seat on the Wizengamot because of an obscure bylaw, and therefore an Heir of House Black must live in the house in order for them or their proxy to serve on the Wizengamot. If we want Andromeda to stay on the Wizengamot, someone needs to live in the house and I have a far less messy history with this place then she does. We also found out that having a loving family living in the house actually erodes most of the dark magic lurking about. The kids still know that they are not to go above the second floor or into the library or the basement without an adult though.”

“To be fair,” remarked Anthony. “Most old wizarding families have similar issues with their mansions. Especially those that don’t have a lot of children to erode the nastiness with their joyful auras. My grandmother abhorred dark magic, and after she passed away we still found a very unsettling doll collection in the basement that part of me suspects was part of some failed attempt to create a horcrux by one of my ancestors.” 

Ginny knocked at the door and poked her head into the library. “Hi love,” she said to Harry before turning to Anthony. “It’s safe to come out now, I think. Angelina is dropping off the various Weasleys, and Lavender and Demelza just left with their broods as well so it’s just the Junior Eagle brigade and us Potters left. Oh, and Padma left a message for you to pick up some more floo powder on your way home. She seems to think that Harry will have forgotten to tell you.”

“Right,” said Anthony as he tucked away his wand and brushed some non-existent dirt off of his cloak. “I’ll collect the six miscreants and be on my way. Thanks for having us, Ginny. The kids don’t get out as much as they should and this is good for everyone.” He left the room and disappeared down the hall. “Oi!” they heard him call. “Goldsteins, Boots, and Corner. We are leaving. Say goodbye to the Potters and meet me in the hall.”

Ginny shook her head. “I don’t know how they do it. Eleven people in the same house with five of them being grown adults and the other six being six years old or younger. And they live like that voluntarily! It was tight enough at the Burrow growing up and we were more spread out and all took off the second we graduated.”

“Hey, we considered having Ron and Hermione live here with us for a while, remember? The only reason we didn’t was because we felt putting the four of us under the same roof was a little too combustible a combination with your and Ron’s tempers, and we didn’t want to trod on each other’s feets when it came to raising the kids.”

“Not to mention Hermione would have felt the need to alphabetize our sock drawer.”

“Yes, that to.”

“I guess Ravenclaws are able to compartmentalize that sort of thing better. Not to mention I don’t think Michael and Terry have any other family left, come to think of it. I think the Boots got killed by the goblins during Griphook’s Rebellion, and Michael’s mom passed away from dragon pox the year after Voldemort fell. He never even knew his dad’s name, and then there was what happened to Tracey. Merlin’s Ghost, they probably live together just to stay sane. George and Lee had to do the same thing after...after Fred.”

There was a meditative silence that was only broken by the sounds of James and Albus squabbling outside the door.

“Give Witherwings here. It’s my time to play with him.”

“Nuh uh. You had him yesterday. It’s my turn today”

“That's not fair.”

Ginny smirked at Harry who rolled his eyes before raising his voice and calling out. “Boys! Share the toy. If you can’t bring yourselves to do that I am sure we can find another one.”

“But Dad…”

“Oh come on, can’t you just gemino him?”

“Boys!”

“Fine.”

“All right.”

Harry collapsed in a nearby armchair and Ginny squeezed in beside him and rested her head on his shoulders. “Regretting having more than one yet?” she murmured. 

“Not for a second.” Harry laughed.

The two sat there for a minute before there was a sudden BOOM that was loud enough to make the entire house rattle and cause Mrs. Black’s portrait began to scream.

Ginny slapped her hand to her face. “James!” she yelled.

“It wasn’t me Mum. I swear.”

“It wasn’t him Ginny,” Harry whispered, pulling out his wand. “It came from outside. I’ll go check it out, but I think I know what it was. That sounded an awful lot like a transoceanic portkey.”

“Don’t those all go to the Ministry?”

“Most of them do, but I gave someone an emergency one a little while back keyed to the park across the road in case something went wrong.”

“Do I need to call the rest of the aurors?”

“No. Don’t call the aurors yet. If this is what I think it is we might want to keep it quiet for right now. Get ready to call Penelope Clearwater though. We might need a healer if things went really bad.” 

Ginny went to the fireplace in the living room and held a handful of floo powder ready as Harry peered through the front window at the rapidly darkening park across the street. “Harry,” she said. “Do I need to call Healer Clearwater?”

As Harry watched, two young men staggered out of the trees and approached the house. The taller of the two was supporting the smaller man who was clutching the side of his chest as a dark stain spread across his shirt.

“Yes,” said Harry. “Tell her to make it quick and have the kids go wait in the kitchen with Kreacher until I can tell how bloody the injuries are.”

The doorbell rang and further enraged Mrs. Black, and Harry went to open the door and greet the two men on the porch. The first man, a tall muscular man with short dark brown hair who was wearing a tight leather jacket and sporting a cockatrice claw as an earring, was supporting the other smaller man whose hair was a wavy mousy brown and was wearing slightly more traditional wizarding garb. The smaller man held his arm to his side and Harry winced when he saw the telltale stains of blood spreading across his robes.

“Hiya Harry,” the man said. “Could I trouble you for a floo call to a healer?”

“Already on it, Dennis. Healer Clearwater should be over in a second. Do you want Ginny to call Demelza as well?”

The Cursebreaker known as Dennis Creevey nodded with a tired smile. “That would be great.”

Dennis’ partner, Jimmy Peakes, had perked up when he heard which healer was visiting. “Did you say Healer Clearwater? Excellent.”

“For crying out loud, Jimmy.” groaned Dennis. “Could you control your animal urges for five minutes until I am no longer dying? Even then we have much bigger fish to fry.”

“Do I want to know why you had to use the emergency portkey?” Harry asked.

“Probably not.” Dennis admitted. “But you are going to need to hear it anyhow. we’ve got serious problems. What do you know about the Book of the Dead?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Darn. Well, let’s sit down and wait for the Healer. This is going to take a while.”


End file.
